Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

KIA

William Charles Ray

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W.C. Ray
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 8th Bn.
Service no. 39290.
Killed in action on 23 October 1918, aged 23.
Remembered at Forest Communal Cemetery, Nord, France

In 1911 William Charles Ray lived with his parents, William, a 37-year-old carman, and 32-year-old Louisa Esther (née Rainbow), and four siblings at 10 Broomgrove Road, Stockwell Green, where they occupied three rooms. Louisa’s mother Caroline Rainbow lived in the other half of the house with a son, adopted daughter and a lodger.

William was almost 21 and working as an engine driver when he was called up 30 May 1918. He stood 5ft 5in, with brown hair and hazel eyes. His chest measured 33in. His physical development was judged to be ‘Good’. 

Ray had two misdemeanours on his Service record: failure to wash before breakfast, for which he was confined to barracks for three days, and overstaying his pass when on active service, for which six days’ pay was withheld. 

Ray married Annie Florence Judd in 1917. She lived at 44 Tregenna Street, Brixton Hill with their two daughters, Annie Edith, born in 1916, and Florence Violet, born posthumously in May 1919. She received his identity disc and a weekly widows’ pension of 20s and 6d.

Leonard Eldridge

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E. Eldridge

Service no. 304022
Rifleman, London Regiment, 1/5th Batallion (London Rifle Brigade)
Killed in action on 9 October 1916, aged about 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911, Leonard Eldridge worked as a messenger for the General Post Office. He lived with his parents and five of his eight siblings at 14 Aldebert Terrace, South Lambeth where the family occupied five rooms. Leonard’s father Harry Eldridge, 51, was a carman, transporting milk for a dairy. He was originally from New Cross, south-east London. His mother, Martha Eldridge, 50, was from Norfolk. 

George Frederick Warwick

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George Frederick Warwick

George Frederick Warwick
Corporal, Service No. 30468, formerly 77895 (Royal Engineers)
Killed in action on 5 October 1917, aged 23
1st Bn., Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Belgium

A substantial number of men from the Stockwell area were not listed on the Memorial. The Stockwell War Memorial committee invited families to submit names. Some may not have wanted their sons’ names to appear on it; others may have moved away and not been aware that the opportunity existed; others still had resided outside the official boundary of a half-mile radius from the building. It is clear that some families came forward after the unveiling of the monument: a few names were added, out of alphabetical order, on the final panel.

George Frederick Warwick is not listed on Stockwell War Memorial, despite the fact that his family home at 180 Stockwell Road was within half a mile of the memorial site. We do not know the reason for his omission. His name has not been discovered on any of the other local surviving memorials.

After he enlisted in the Royal Engineers in Lambeth in 1915, George served as a Dispatch Rider in various locations around Arras, in the region of Artois, northern France. In March 1917 he was transferred to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and took part in the Battle of Arras (First and Third Battle of Scarpe), after which his regiment was kept on the front line to consolidate the system of trenches dug on the ground retaken during the battle.

On 30 September George left for Ypres and was killed in action just over two weeks later at the Battle of Broodseinde, at 19 Meter Hill.

While he was serving he fell in love with a young French woman, Georgette Béthencourt, who gave birth to his daughter, Marie, on 26 August 1917. He was able to hold his child in his arms only twice before leaving for Ypres.

George, who was born in the parish of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster in 1896, was the eldest of seven children of George Edward Warwick, a Covent Garden master porter, and Julia Catherine Williams. In the 1911 census the Warwick family was recorded as living at 180 Stockwell Road, with a female servant and a male boarder. When George’s daughter was 11, her George Edward, her grandfather, sent her George’s medals (see letter below).

Information and all photos by kind permission of George’s grandson-in-law Pierre Rouvillois, and Elisabeth Rouvillois.

Charles John Young

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C. J. Young
Service no. 42404
Private, Essex Regiment, 11th Battalion; formerly 49934, Northamptonshire Regiment
Born in Putney; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in South Lambeth
Killed in action on 21 March 1918, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of John and Elizabeth Young, of 97 Hartington Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Beaumetz-les-Cambrai Military Cemetery No. 1, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Charles John Young, a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1911, lived at 21 Camellia Street, Stockwell. His widowed mother, Elizabeth Young, 44, was born in Germany and made her living charing (cleaning). There were six siblings: Minnie Young, 18, who worked stripping tobacco; Rose Young, 16, a collar machinist; Lena Young, 14, a darning machinist; Walter Mafeking Young, 10; May Lily Elizabeth Young, 6; Grace Margarete Young, 5. The family of eight lived in two rooms. Three other of Elizabeth’s babies had died.

Frank Wybrew

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F. Wybrew
Service no. 10622
Private, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), 1st Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action on 18 September 1916, aged 23
CWGC: “Son of Maria Rose Whitehouse (formerly Wybrew), of 11 Irving Grove, Stockwell, London, and the late William Wybrew.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France and at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Frank Wybrew was baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, Stockwell on 14 May 1893, the second of three children of William Joseph Wybrew, a saddler, and Maria Rose (née Millett). They gave their address as 65 Andalus Road, Stockwell. 

Frank’s father died in 1896, at around the time Maria Rose gave birth to their third child. She subsequently married James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker.

In 1911, Frank Wybrew lived with his mother, stepfather James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker, a younger sister, three of his five half-siblings and his maternal grandfather in a four-roomed flat, 12 Emily Mansions on Landor Road, Stockwell.  He worked as a ‘general hand’ for a seed merchant.

Frank Worthy

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F. Worthy
Service no. 4785
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), “D” Coy. 1st/21st Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Alfred James and Matilda Clara Worthy, of 12 Normandy Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911 Frank Worthy was a 14-year-old schoolboy. He lived at 5 Addison Place, Brixton (now part of Normandy Road) with his parents, Alfred James Worthy, 45, a sign writer for the council, and Matilda Clara Worthy, 37, both born in Lambeth. Frank had two siblings. The family occupied four rooms. 

Frank, who was born on 23 October 1898, attended Stockwell Road School and moving on in 1908 to Battersea Polytechnic Boys’ Secondary School, for which he received a bursary. He left in July 1914 to train as a teacher at London Day Training College. 

Frank Worthy enlisted on 27 January 1916 in Lambeth, giving his age as 19, occupation as teacher and address as 5 Addison Place (since renamed Normandy Road), Brixton. He had previously been rejected for service. Frank stood 5ft 11in tall, with a chest measurement of 33½in. His moles on his upper right arm and abdomen were noted. He joined the British Expeditionary Force on 15 June 1916 and survived exactly three months after that.

The Worthys were members of the Plymouth Brethren.