• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Stockwell War Memorial

Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

  • Home
  • Order the book (free download)
  • About
  • The men of Stockwell
  • History of the Memorial
  • Centenary Exhibition
  • Contact
  • Newsletter
  • Friends Group

KIA

Isaac Spooner

18 August 2015 by SWM

I. Spooner
Service no. 25552
Private, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), 9th Battalion, formerly 015439 R.A.S.C.
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Battersea; lived in Wandsworth
Killed in action on 1 September 1918, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of James and Matilda Spooner.”
Remembered at Vis-en-Artois Memorial, France

In 1911 ironmonger’s assistant Isaac Spooner, 17, lived at 39 Brooklands Road, Stockwell, where his family had six rooms. His father, James Spooner, 55, from Newham, Hampshire, was a train engine driver for London & South Western Railway; his mother, Matilda Jane (née Hector), 55, was from Brixton. Three of Spooner’s six siblings lived at home, his sister Norah, 31, a dressmaker’s assisant, and two brothers, Henry, 27, a carman, and Sidney James (Isaac’s twin), 17,  a draper’s assistant (who also served in the Army Service Corps, was wounded by a bomb and survived – he died in 1929, aged 36). 

Spooner enlisted in Battersea 0n 6 October 1914, giving his occupation as carman. He was 5ft 4½in, 8⅔st, with a 36in chest. He had blue eyes, brown hair and a sallow complexion, with a scar in the centre of his forehead and on his left cheek. His physical development was judged to be ‘Good’. On 8 July 1915 he joined the Expeditionary Force to France. On 20 August 1917 he was transferred to the West Riding Regiment.

Matilda, Spooner’s widowed mother, died aged 62 of sarcoma of the jaw on 20 November 1918, 11 weeks after her son was killed in action. 

Information from the 1911 census

Ironmonger’s assistant Isaac Spooner, 17, lived at 39 Brooklands Road, Stockwell, where his family had  6 rooms. His father James Spooner, 55, from Newham, Hampshire, was a train engine driver for London & South West Railway; his mother Matilda Spooner, 55, was from Brixton. Three siblings (of six) lived at home: Henry Spooner, 27, a carman in Walworth; Norah Spooner, 31, a dressmaker working in Oxford Street; Sidney Spooner, 17, a draper’s assistant in Balham (and possibly Isaac’s twin). James and Matilda had a total of eight children (one died).

Filed Under: S names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1918, age 24, France, KIA

Alfred Frank Spice

18 August 2015 by SWM

A.F. Spice
Service no. M/1766
Cook’s Mate, Royal Navy, HMS Good Hope
Killed in action on 1 November 1914 at the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile, aged 23
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial
See LondonWarMemorial.co.uk

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Albert Frank Spice was born on 9 March 1891 in Clapham, the third child of James Spring and Julia Spice. The family were living in Larkhall Lane at the time. Albert’s father worked as a house painter and decorator and by 1901 there had been two further additions to the family at Larkhall Lane. But fortunes changed with the death of Albert’s father in 1905.

The 1911 Census shows Albert’s widowed mother Julia was employed at home as a sewing machinist doing piecework, and Albert’s sisters Florence and Elsie worked as cardboard box makers. A cousin of Albert’s mother was staying with them, together with a paying boarder. Five people where sharing five rooms at 133 Larkhall Lane, Clapham.

Albert was not to be found at the family home in 1911, he was in the Navy. Albert joined on 11 April 1910, as a 2nd Class Cook’s Mate and had progressed to Cook’s Mate in the intervening year. He served on HMS Dreadnought for two years and moved to HMS Ariadne in 1913 when he had passed for Leading Cook’s Mate. At the outbreak on the war, Albert had been on the armoured cruiser HMS Good Hope since 31 July 1914. Later that year, HMS Good Hope was part of the 4th Cruiser Squadron, which engaged the enemy off the coast of Chile on 1 November. Outnumbered and outgunned, the HMS Good Hope was lost with all hands, a total of 926 officers and ratings.

Albert’s mother and sisters were left to mourn his loss as the war dragged on with no end in sight. The creation of the Stockwell War Memorial offered them a lasting act of remembrance. It had been a long wait.

Filed Under: S names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1914, age 23, KIA, navy

Reginald Charles Southon

18 August 2015 by SWM

R. C. Southon
Service no. 13008
Private, Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Born in Hampstead, enlisted in Westminster, lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 23 October 1916, aged about 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Reginald Charles Southon, 14, was an errand boy living at 27 Rossiter Road, Balham, where his family shared 5 rooms. He was born in Hampstead, north London. His father, John Charles Southon, 46, was a gas meter maker born in Clerkenwell, married for a year to Reginald’s stepmother, Olivia Estall, 48, from Peterborough. Reginald had a younger brother, Ernest John Southon, 12, born in Clerkenwell. Sarah Combs Tournies, 79, a widow from Lambeth, boarded with the family.

Filed Under: S names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1916, age 19, France, KIA

Sydney Herbert John Sore

18 August 2015 by SWM

S. H. J. Sore
Service no. 614318
Private, London Regiment, 2nd/19th Battalion, formerly 5508, 9th London Regiment
Born in Clapham; enlisted at Oxford Street, London; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 22 March 1918, aged 22
CWGC: “Only son of Alfred Harry and Mary Emma Sore, of 8 Larkhall Lane, Clapham, London. Served also in France and Salonika.”
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Information from the censuses

Sydney Herbert John Sore, 15, was an architect’s clerk, born in Clapham. His father, Alfred Sore, 48, was a solicitor’s clerk born in South London; his mother, Mary Emma Sore, 40, was from Tuddenham, Suffolk. Kathleen Mary Sore, Sydney’s 7-year-old sister, was born in South Lambeth. The family lived at 8 Larkhall Lane, Stockwell. Ten years previously, they lived next door at 10 Larkhall Lane. They shared their home with Mary’s brother, Ernest Daniel Aldous, 25, a single warehouseman born in Peckham.

Filed Under: S names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1918, age 22, Israel, KIA

William Thomas Snelling

18 August 2015 by SWM

W.T. Snelling
Service no. R/2283
Able Seaman, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Howe Bn. R.N. Div.
Died on 26 October 1917 (missing, assumed killed in action), aged 23
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Heuvelland, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Brother of Frederick William Snelling and cousin of Harold Measday Snelling 

William Thomas Snelling, born in Limehouse, east London on 5 May 1894, the third son of Charles Henry and Emily Jane Snelling, and baptised at St Anne’s, Limehouse on 30 May (see Frederick William Snelling for family details). Formerly of the 2/1st Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry, enlisted in the Territorial Force on 30 August 1916, transferring to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 16 June 1917. He joined the British Expeditionary Force on 4 July 1917 and Howe Battalion on 1 September. 

William’s father Charles Henry Snelling of 260 South Lambeth Road, Stockwell, was named as his next of kin. 

Ex-315900 Private 2/1st Westmorland & Cumberland Yeomanry, enlisted Territorial Force 30 August 1916, transferred to RNVR for RND 16 June 1917 ; Draft for BEF 4 July 1917, joined Howe Bn. 1 September 1917 to 26 October 1917 DD (declared dead).
Born 5 May 1894
Next-of-kin: Father, Charles Henry Snelling, 260 South Lambeth Road, Stockwell, London SW9.

Filed Under: S names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1917, age 23, Belgium, KIA, naval

Harold Measday Snelling

18 August 2015 by SWM

H.M. Snelling
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles), 1st/9th Bn.
Service no. 4746
Killed in action on 1 July 1916, aged XX
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, at Sandwich War Memorial and on a now lost wooden war crucifix outside St Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road

Cousin of Frederick William Snelling and William Thomas Snelling

Chris Burge writes:

Harold Measday Snelling was born in Ramsgate, Kent in 1898, the third child of Frederick and Ellen Sophia (née Rogers) Snelling. In the 1901 census, Frederick worked as a baker and confectioner from premises at 15 King Street in the centre of Ramsgate, two doors from the Prince Albert public house. Ellen’s younger sister Rose Rogers assisted with the business as did a journeyman baker and his sister. 

By 1911 the Snelling family had moved to the more genteel surroundings of the market town of Sandwich, where Frederick ran his bakery from 9 The Cattle Market, in the heart of of the town. Frederick and Ellen were now 43 and had been married 20 years. Frederick listed his three children (one had died) in age order on his 1911 census return: Winifred, 19; Frederick John, 16; Harold, 13. He added Annie Lilian Rogers, his wife’s younger sister, as a visitor. Ellen, Winifred and Frederick John all worked in the business. The family were the sole occupants of the five-room property. 

According to the 1911 census returns, Ellen managed to be in two places at once on census day. She also appeared as a visitor on the return of Frederick’s brother, Charles Henry Snelling, whose family were living at 154 Glengall Road, Peckham. Frederick William and William Thomas were two of Charles Henry Snelling’s six children.

Charles Henry Snelling and family moved to 260 South Lambeth Road around 1914 at which time Harold Snelling seemed to be living with his uncle and working in London. Harold was baptised as an adult at St Anne’s, South Lambeth, on 22 December 1914. His cousin Frederick William Snelling, a civil service clerk, had volunteered at the beginning of the war. Harold volunteered around May 1915 in Central London joining the Queen Victoria’s Rifles. He was drafted to the 1st/9th Battalion in France on 30 March 1916, joining the battalion in a group of 38 men. The QVR were out of the line for most of March, April and until they moved to Hebuterne, south of Gommecourt, at the end of May. They suffered numerous casualties in the front line until the final week of June when the QVR were digging service and assembly trenches in preparation for the beginning of the Somme offensive. On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the QVR were part of the ill-fated diversionary attack at the northern extreme of the Somme sector at Gommecourt. The battalion suffered horrendous casualties in one day’s fighting. Among the officers six were killed, five were wounded and five missing; in other ranks 51 were killed, 290 wounded and 188 missing; a total of 16 officers and 529 men. Harold Measday Snelling, an acting corporal at the time, was posted missing on this day . 

An article appeared in the Deal, Walmer & Sandwich Mercury on 26 August 1916, entitled, ‘SANDWICH LAD MISSING’: 

‘The following appears in the “St Anne’s (South Lambeth) Parish Magazine’ for August regarding the youngest son of Mr. Frank Snelling, baker, of the Cattle Market, Sandwich, who was recently announced missing:- “News reaches us that Harold Snelling. A member of our choir and A.S.M of our scouts, has been posted missing since July 1. He was in the Queen Victoria Rifles somewhere in France. We fear there is not much hope of his having been saved. It is just possible that he may be a prisoner of war, but confess it is unlikely. We are very sorry, and yet not a little proud. He was one of those people who do not talk a lot, but put a lot of reality into anything they undertake. Not least did Harold count his faith in Jesus Christ, and so we confidently believe he is all right where-ever he is.’

In the course of time, Harold Measday Snelling was officially presumed to have died on, or since, 1 July 1916. His cousin Frederick William Snelling was killed on the Somme on 18 September 1916 and another cousin, William Thomas Snelling, was killed in 1917 during 3rd Ypres.

Filed Under: S names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1 July 1916, 1916, Chris Burge, France, KIA, missing

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Page 10
  • Page 11
  • Page 12
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 43
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

The Men of Stockwell

  • All the men
  • Died on 1 July 1916
  • Brothers
  • Listed on St Mark’s War Memorial
  • Listed on St Andrew’s War Memorial
  • Listed on St John’s War Memorial

SEARCH THE SITE

Other local memorials

  • St Mark’s, Kennington
  • St Andrew’s, Landor Road
  • St Michael’s Church shrine
  • Wynne Road sorting office
  • Brixton Town Hall
  • St John’s Church
  • Michael Church, Myatts Fields
  • St Mark’s War Shrine
  • St Anne’s War Crucifix
  • Clapham War Memorials

About this site

This site lists 574 men named on Stockwell War Memorial in London SW9.

If you would like to contribute information or images to the site, please email stockwellmemorialfriends@gmail.com

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis Sample On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • All the men
  • Died on 1 July 1916
  • Brothers
  • Listed on St Mark’s War Memorial
  • Listed on St Andrew’s War Memorial
  • Listed on St John’s War Memorial