Stockwell War Memorial

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Arthur Pearce Harold

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A. P. Harold
Service no. 320761
Private, Norfolk Regiment, 12th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Battalion
Born in Reading, Berkshire
Killed in action around age 34 on 9 December 1917
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Information from the censuses

Arthur Pearce Harold, 28, a newspaper clerk, was born in Reading, Berkshire. In 1911 he lived in 3 rooms at 13 Prideaux Road, Stockwell with his parents, Edward Charles Harold, 64, a chemist’s assistant from Tonbridge Wells, Kent, and Elizabeth Ann Harold, 62, a music teacher from Maidstone, Kent, and his sister, Margaret Gibson Harold, a 25-year-old post office clerk, born in Tunbridge Wells. This is one of the few examples where all members of the household have given occupations, including the women. Edward and Elizabeth Harold had had 5 children, with only Arthur and Margaret surviving in 1911.

Alfred Thomas Evans

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A. T. Evans
Rifleman, London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), 2nd/18th Bn.
Service no. 593075
Died 23 December 1917, aged 19
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Alfred Thomas Evans was born in 1898 and baptised at St Paul’s, Clapham on 1 May. He was the youngest of William Charles and Mary Evans’ four sons. The family lived in six rooms above their grocery shop at 270 Wandsworth Road.  

In the 1911 census, Alfred, then 13, lived at home with this parents and older brothers William Charles, Bertram Horace and Henry Edgar.  His father, a tea dealer and grocer, ran the family business with the assistance of his son William. Bertram worked as an engineer, and Henry was a leather worker. 

The shop lay between New Road and Howard Street, with a butcher and baker to either side. The Bell public house was two doors away and is still standing. The atmosphere of the area can be judged from this 1910 photograph.

October 1911 brought sadness for the family when Bertram, the second son, died aged 21. He was buried at Norwood Cemetery. Happier times followed when Alfred’s older brother William married Ada Florence Hall at St Philips, Balham, on 23 March 1913. Their first child was born in January 1914.  

William seems to have made a last-minute decision to attest on 9 December 1915, under Lord Derby’ scheme, two days before its closure. The scheme, devised because recruitment was not keeping pace with casualties, urged men aged 18 to 41 who were not in a reserved occupation to come forward, on the understanding that single men would be called up before married men or widowers with children. William was not called up until the beginning of 1917.

Alfred was conscripted in mid-1916, enlisting in London. His first destination was Salonika by ship across the Mediterranean, landing on 30 March 1917.  His battalion moved to Egypt on 12 June, landing at Alexandria, and entrained for Ismalia where they settled in at Moscar Camp the following day. 

The comforts of the camp were described by one soldier: ‘Moscar, itself, was a permanent camp of tents with ample accommodation for everyone and water to be had by merely turning on a tap. Melons and fruit in abundance and in great variety and ideal swimming in Lake Timsah only a short distance away…’

What followed was the Battle of Sheria in November and the assault to capture Jerusalem in December.  

News reached the Evans family that Alfred’s older brother William had been wounded in the head and was invalided to England on 16 December 1917.  A week later,  at Christmas time, William and Mary received the news that Alfred had been killed in action on Christmas Eve, near Jerusalem.  

Alfred’s brothers William and Henry ran the family business in the Wandsworth Road for many years after the war. His father died in 1931, aged 67,  Henry in 1940, aged 47, and William in 1963, aged 75.

Archibald Samuel Campbell

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A. S. Campbell
Service no. 203096
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 2nd/4th Battalion
Killed in action on 26 April 1918
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

British Army Pension Records 1914-1920

Very soon after war broke out jeweller’s assistant Archibald Samuel Campbell took himself to the recruiting office at Battersea and offered himself to the Wiltshire Regiment. They gave him a number, 13710, and measured him up: 5 feet 2 inches, 110 pounds and 34 inch chest. Puny by our standards, but not exceptional then. Campbell was described as having a sallow complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. His overall physical development was judged to be “good”.

However, only 41 days later he was discharged under Para 392 (ii) King’s Regulations ‘ “not being likely to become an efficient soldier”. There are no more details.

Campbell must have re-enlisted or have been called up again, this time joining the Queen’s Regiment, surviving to 26 April 1918 when he was killed in action and buried in the war cemetery in Jerusalem (now in Israel).

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Archibald Samuel Campbell was a student living at 193 Wandsworth Road with his parents and brother. The family had 2 rooms. Thomas S. Campbell, 48, was a messenger for the Admiralty. He was born in Chelsea, London. Humilia Campbell, 37, was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire. Archibald, then 15, was born in Langton Herring, Dorset. His younger brother, Edgar L. Campbell, 6, was born in Battersea.  Humilia and Thomas had 3 children, with only Archibald and Edgar surviving to 1911.