Stockwell War Memorial

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KIA

Alfred Roskilly

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A. Roskilly
Second Lieutenant, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 7th Battalion
Killed in action age 26 on 3 May 1917
CWGC: “Son of Mr and Mrs A. J. Roskilly, of 96, Stockwell Park Road, London; husband of Ruth Roskilly, of 16, Briarwood Road, Clapham Park, London.”
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France and at St John’s Church, Clapham Road, London SW9

After Alfred Roskilly died, there was some confusion in the War Office as to whether he was killed in action on 3 May 1917 or died just over a month later as a prisoner of war. The authorities had received information via the International Red Cross, that an “A. Rostkeilly” of the Royal West Surrey Regiment was held by the Germans. However, no real conclusion emerges from the files, except that, in the absence of real evidence, the Army accepted the earlier date as the date of death. The date of death was important as it affected the payments owing to the deceased, inherited by his widow.

Roskilly, an assistant clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank at Blythe Road, West Kensington, had considerable military experience, having joined the 2nd (Cadet) Battalion of the London Regiment (Civil Service), moving to the 15th Battalion, and subsequently transferring to the London Field Ambulance on 9 July 1915. He served 1 year and 225 days before being granted a temporary commission in March 1917. He survived less than 10 weeks.

Arthur Roskilly, the eldest of four children of compositor Alfred Joseph Roskilly, from Dalston, east London, and Clara (née Guest), from Southampton. His military character was described as “very good.” He stood 5 feet 7½ inches, weighed 9¾ stone and had a 39-inch chest. In 1911 the Roskilly family lived at 32 Clitheroe Road, Stockwell, where they occupied six rooms. Arthur married Ruth Lambert at St Anne’s and All Saints Church, South Lambeth Road on 2 April 1914.

Information from the censuses

In 1911, Alfred Roskilly, the eldest child of compositor Alfred Joseph Roskilly, 41, from Dalston, east London, and Clara Roskilly, 42, from Southampton, was 20 and working as a civil service clerk. The couple had three other surviving children (one had died): Frank Roskilly, 19, a “boy clerk’, like Alfred born in Southwark; Doris Roskilly, 8, born in Stockwell; Ruby Roskilly, 6, born in Stockwell. A boarder, Henry Goerge Downer, 19 and from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, another boy clerk, lived with the family at 32 Clitheroe Road, Stockwell, where they had six rooms. A decade earlier, the Roskilly family lived at 16 Grantham Road.

Alfred Rodgers or Rogers

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A. Rodgers (on the memorial as Rodgers, in the Commonwealth War Memorial database as Rogers)
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 1st Bn.
Service no. 11158
Killed in action on 25 September 1916, aged 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Alfred Rodgers was born in November 1894 in Pimlico on the north side of the Thames, the second child of Frederick William and Mary Ellen (née Mulcahy). His older brother Frederick was born in Pimlico in 1890, in the same year that their parents had married at St John’s, Worlds End, Chelsea. By the time of the 1901 census, the four members of the Rodgers family lived at 55 Dalyell Road in Stockwell, in just one room in a property that housed two other families. The family faced considerable hardship as Alfred’s father Frederick was unable to work after the amputation of his right leg. His mother Mary was a packer in a laundry. 

In the 1911 census, brothers Frederick and Alfred Rodgers were still living with their parents, who were now both 43. The family had moved a few doors away to 40 Dalyell Road, where they lived in just two rooms of the three-storey building which also housed a family of six in four rooms, a widow in one room and a young mother and child in another room. Alfred’s father had found work as a beer bottler while his mother was working as an ironer in a laundry. Alfred’s brother Frederick, now 20, was an attendant in a cinema and Alfred, whose age was given as 18, was a shop boy for a bookmaker (betting shop). 

Frederick volunteered at the very beginning of the war, on 9 September 1914 at Marylebone, joining the Buffs (East Kent) Regiment. Within a week, as private 2176 Rodgers he was posted to the 8th Battalion at Shoreham, Sussex. His disciplinary record started to deteriorate in the spring of 1915; on six occasions between April and June he is absent without leave. The last of these was on 18 June 1915, when he was absent for over four days. On his return, he was given 14 days confinement to barracks and hauled before the Commanding Officer for a second time. On the 26 June he was posted as a deserter. He was reputedly the father of a child born in the Hastings area around March 1916 but his parents had no knowledge of his whereabouts, and may never have heard from him again. 

In mid 1915, the mayors of London boroughs were encouraged to boost the dwindling numbers of volunteers by launching new recruitment campaigns to raise local battalions. In Lambeth the designated battalion was the 11th battalion of the Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey), established on 9 June 1915. In neighbouring Wandsworth, it was the ‘Wandsworth Regulars’, the 13th (Service) battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. Alfred Rodgers chose to volunteer at Wandsworth on the 9 July 1915, giving his address as 74 Paradise Road, Clapham and stating his age as 20 years and nine months. At his medical he was recorded as 5ft 1in tall, weighing 7st 7lbs, and with a 32in chest. His recorded occupation was ‘vanguard’. His mother Mary was his next of kin. 

The battalion made a series of farewell route marches around Wandsworth in late August 1915 before moving to Witley in Surrey and to Blackdown near Aldershot by February 1916. Alfred was not with the battalion when it finally departed for France in June 1916 as he had been transferred to the 14th Reserve Battalion in May and then the 10th Reserve Battalion. on 24 June. He was finally sent to France in a draft of men supposedly destined for the 9th Battalion, who sailed from Folkestone on 27 July. 

Once in France, Alfred and others were diverted to the 1st East Surrey, joining them at the Somme front on 7 August. August was spent out of the line in a period of training and practising bombing and firing on the ranges. They returned to the trenches in very wet weather on 31 August. September was spent in and out of various support trenches in continuing bad weather until a Brigade attack on enemy position took place on 25 September. Among the many casualties was Alfred Rodgers, killed in action on that day.

When Alfred’s mother Mary Ellen took Army Form W5080 to be witnessed and countersigned at St Barnabas vicarage on 18 August 1919, she had written just her own and her husband’s names on the form as the sole relatives of her dead son. Mary Ellen received her son’s medal in August 1921. 

Alfred parents Frederick William and Mary Ellen Rodgers were still living at 74 Paradise Road in 1938. They passed away within a few months of each other in 1944, both aged 77.

George Rixton

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G. Rixton
Service no. 3483
Sapper, Royal Engineers, 2nd/1st Lowland Field Coy.
Born in Maiden Newton; enlisted in Victoria Park, east London; lived in Weymouth, Dorset
Killed in action on 16 September 1916, aged 32
CWGC: “Son of Robert and Annie Rixton, of 14, Victoria Rd., Dorchester.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 George Rixton, then aged 26, was boarding with the Reed family at 1a Elwell Road, Clapham and working as a brewer’s cooper. Rixton was born in Weymouth (Maiden Newton, according to the 1901 census), Dorset, where his family still lived. The 1901 census shows that his father, Robert Rixton, then aged 43, worked as a brewer’s cellarman. He was born in Muckleford, Dorset. George’s mother, Annie, 47, was born in Maiden Newton, Dorset. Two daughters were also registered: Elizabeth F. Rixton, 17, a dressmaker, born in Maiden Newton; Fanny Rixton, 15, a dressmaker’s apprentice, also born in Maiden Newton.

Norman Victor Riva

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N.V. Riva
Service no. 1891
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 31 March 1915, aged 18
CWGC: “Son of Mr E. Riva, of 46 Priory Grove, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Ferme Buterne Military Cemetery, Houplines, France

Information from the censuses

Norman Riva, 14 in 1911, was a dental assistant. He lived five rooms at 46 Priory Grove, South Lambeth, with his parents and siblings. Riva’s father, Charles Edward Forrester Riva, 42, a warehouseman (provisions), was from Camberwell; his mother, Susannah (née Martin), 41, was born in Westminster. Their six surviving children (of seven) were:
Francis Riva, 16, a railway clerk
Norman Riva, 14
William Riva, 11, at school and helping on a milk round
Ida RIva, 8
Dora RIva, 2
Edgar Riva, 7 months
All were born in South Lambeth. In 1901 the Riva family were living at 52 Priory Grove.

Reginald Parnham Ridley

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R. P. Ridley
Service no. 589
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), 16th Battalion
Killed in action on 23 September 1916, aged 23
Born in Clapham; enlisted at Westminster; lived in Clapham
CWGC: “Son of Frederick William Ridley, of 420 Clapham Road, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longeuval, France, at St John’s Church, Clapham Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses
Reginald Parnham Ridley, 18 in 1911, was an electrical engineer. He was the eldest of three sons of Eliza Mary Ann Ridley, 47, a dressmaker. Ridley lived in nine rooms at 420 Clapham Road with his mother and two brothers, Roy Trevor Ridley, 16, an optician’s apprentice, and Leslie Howard Ridley, 11. The boys were born in Clapham. Ridley’s father, Frederick W. Riley, a grain merchant, does not appear on the return for this address. Eliza has listed herself as “wife” rather than “head”, so it is possible that he was away from the house that night. However, the London County Suburbs Directory for 1913 lists her as “Ridley, Mrs. Eliza, dressmaker” without mentioning her husband. A visitor, Alice Hannah Wright, 38, from Brighton, was staying on the night of the census.

Ernest Reynolds

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E. Reynolds
Service no. 143376
Sapper, Corps of Royal Engineers, 104th Field Coy.
Born in Lambeth; enlisted at Croydon; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 20 January 1918, aged about 20
Remembered at Templeux-le-Guerard British Cemetery, France

In 1911 Ernest Reynolds, 13, lived in three rooms at 20 Tradescant Road, South Lambeth. His father, George Reynolds, 49, was a joiner and carpenter originally from Lowestoft, Suffolk. His mother, Jeanie, 45, was from Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland. Ernest had three siblings, Ethel, 18, a mantle and coat maker, George, 16, a cinematographer, and Mabel, 11, at school. Ernest was born in Vauxhall. He enlisted at Croydon.