Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

KIA

Frederick Henry Merredew

by

F. H. Merredew
Service no. 377
Serjeant, London Regiment, “C” Coy. 1st/24th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted at Kennington; lived at Brixton
Killed in action at age 25 on 26 May 1915
CWGC: “Son of Arthur James and Sarah Mary Merredew, of 1 Sternhold Avenue, Streatham Hill, London.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

Frederick Henry Merredew, 21, was a piano player maker. In 1911 he was living with his family at 36 Glenferrie Road, St Albans, where they occupied 6 rooms. Arthur James Merredew, 47, born in Clerkenwell, was also involved in the player piano trade, working as a wood machinist. His wife, Sarah Mary Merredew, 46, was from Kensington, west London. They had had 11 children, nine surviving, with eight appearing on this census return:
Frederick Henry Merredew, 21, born in South Lambeth;
Florence Emma Merredew, 19, a “raincoat baster” in a clothing factory, born in South Lambeth
Catherine Helena Merredew, 16, born in North Lambeth
Elsie Ada Merredew, 12, born in Brixton
Walter Merredew, 11, born in Brixton
Cecil Edward Merredew, 9, born in Brixton
William Norris Merredew, 6, born in Brixton
Minnie Mary Merredew, 5, born in Brixton
I believe “piano player” to mean “player piano” – these were self-playing pianos, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via, usually, pre-programmed music perforated paper.

William Samuel Meech

by

W. S. Meech
Service no. S/8961, Private, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), 9th Bn.
Killed in action on 6 February 1916.
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

William Samuel Meech was born in Lewisham, south-east London. He volunteered in May 1915 and was killed in action at the Battle of Loos. He lived at 17 Pulross Road, Stockwell.

Claude James Edwin Meacock

by

C. J. E. Meacock
Service no. 200253
Corporal, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Battalion
Killed in action on 26 August 1918 at the age of about 20
Born in Lambeth; enlisted at Handel Street; lived in Wandsworth
Remembered at Summit Trench Cemetery, Croisilles, France

Information from the 1901 census

In 1911 Claude Meacock lived at 11a Goldsboro Road, near Wandsworth Road, with his parents and 5 siblings. His father, James Meacock, 39, was a chargeman of cleaners for the London & South West Railway. He was born in Bayswater, west London. His mother, Anna Mary Meacock, 41, was from Croydon. The children were:
Claude Meacock, 12, born in Clapham
Muriel Meacock, 10, born in Clapham
Stewart Meacock, 8, born in Clapham
Irene Meacock, 6, born in Clapham
Beatrice Meacock, 4, born in South London
Edna Meacock, 2, born in South London
There was also a boarder: Benjamin Pay, an 18-year-old single man (no occupation given) from Elstead.In 1901 Claude, then aged 3, was living with his mother, younger sister Muriel, cousin Lucy Bashford, 11, at 27 Ashburnham Grove, Greenwich. His father James is not listed.

George Robert McDowall

by

 

G. R. McDowall
Service no, 59064
Serjeant, Royal Engineers, 69th Field Coy
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 10 May 1916, aged about 43
CWGC: “Brother of Mr H. McDowall, of 33 Nealdon Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Bully-Grenay Communal Cemetery, British Extension, France

On 4 October 1900 George Robert McDowall, 27, the son of a labourer, married Emma Cecil Giffin, 21, at St. Andrew’s Church. He was a serving serjeant with the 2nd Dragoons.  In 1911 Emma is found living at 33 Nealdon Street, Stockwell, with her three children Flora May, 6 (born in Norwich), Robert Andrew, 4 (born in Glasgow), and George Leslie, 1 (born in Lambeth).

Trevor Moore writes:

G. R. McDowall was my great grandfather on my mother’s side. The story of his death and the effects on his young family is tragic, yet I’m sure not uncommon to his generation.

GRM was killed on the front at Grenay, a mining village close to Lens. He left a wife, Emma, and five children: Flora, Robert, Dora, George Leslie (my grandfather) and Roy. Very soon after GRM’s death, Emma also died at the very young age of 37, leaving the children orphans. My grandfather and his younger brother were sent to a local orphanage as a result.

Photos by kind permission of © Trevor Moore.

Douglas B. Maybank

by

D. Maybank
Service no. R/24284
Serjeant, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 20th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 29 June 1918 age 30
CWGC: “Son of Harriet and the late William Maybank, of Stockwell; husband of Florence Maybank, of 29, Tasman Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Sandpits British Cemetery, Fouquereuil, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

MAYBANK, D., Sergt., King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
He was mobilised at the outbreak of war, and being almost immediately drafted to France took part in the Retreat from Mons. He also served at the Battles of the Marne, the Aisne, Ypres, the Somme, and in many subsequent engagements. He gave his life for King and Country on the Cambrai front in the Advance of 1918, and was entitled to the Mons Star and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“A valiant soldier, with undaunted heart he breasted life’s last hill.”
29, Tasman Road, Landor Road, S.W.9.

Information from the censuses

In 1911, aged 23, Douglas Maybank lived at 22 Aytoun Road, Stockwell with his family. Like his father, he was a grainer and marbler (he painted wood grain effect and stained paper or other materials to look like marble). William Maybank, 50, was from Epsom, Surrey; Harriett Maybank 48, was from Ellingham, Norfolk. They had 5 surviving children (of 6), all of them born in Stockwell:
Douglas Maybank, 23
Gladys Maybank, 19, a clerk
Leslie Maybank, 16, an office boy
Donald Maybank, 11
Gwendoline Maybank, 10
A cousin, 47-year-old single house painter Harry Dewdney (described on the 1901 census as “deaf and dumb”), and a nephew, 17-year-old single office boy Leo Maybank, lived with the family.
In 1901 the Maybanks lived at 10 Moat Place, off Stockwell Road.

Frank Clifford John Mason

by

F. C. J. Mason
Service no. PS/2538
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 17th Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action age 16 on 24 August 1916
CWGC: “Son of Maud Mary and Arthur Petherick (step-father), of 22, St. Michael’s Rd., Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

Information from British Army Records 1914-1920

On 12 July 1915 Frank Clifford John Mason, an only child living with his mother and stepfather, lied about his age in order to enlist in the British Army and join the war effort. He was born in September 1899 and was two or three months shy of his 16th birthday. He claimed to be 19, and this was accepted. A little over a year later he was dead.

Frank’s birth father was also called Frank Mason and was described in the 1901 census as a “manager specialist”, then aged 58 and born in Pimlico. The 1891 census lists him as a “chef & manager” and shows that he had a previous family. He was married to Esther, at 54 seven years older than himself, and there was a grandson, one-year-old Thomas F. M. Tickling. The family lived at 22 Stansfield Road, Stockwell.

Some time after 1891 Frank senior became a widower and in 1899 he married again, this time to Maud Mary Mason from Ipswich, who was almost half his age. Soon there was a child, the Frank listed on the Memorial.

But Frank senior died in 1904, leaving Maud a widow and Frank junior without a father. Less than two years later, in 1906, Maud married again, this time to a man considerably younger than herself. Arthur Petherick, shown as 31 on the 1911 census, was a railway clerk born in Dorking in 1880. The family, Maud, Arthur and Frank junior, now lived at 22 St. Michael’s Road with three boarders.

On 12 July 1915, less than 12 months after the war started, 15-year-old Frank joined up. He claimed to be a 19-year-old clerk.

Mason was puny, even by contemporary standards. The examining officer described Mason’s physical development as “slight”, and he stood only 5 feet 4 and a half inches tall with a 32½-inch chest. He was immature emotionally as well. While training at Northampton, in March 1916, he was in trouble for insubordination and for making improper remarks to an N.C.O., for which he was punished with 14 days’ detention.

But the war was soon over for Mason. He was posted to France on 21 April 1916 and just over four months later, on 24 August, he was killed in action, having served a total of 1 year and 44 days. He had not yet reached his 17th birthday.
On 28 August 1918, Frank’s effects – photos, disc, diary and postcards – were forwarded to his mother and stepfather. The army asked for acknowlegement of receipt, but Mrs Petherick replied questioning the whereabouts of her son’s other possessions. “I wish to point out,” she said, “that seeing these other items were recoverable from my son’s body, there were other things such as watch, cigarette cases, fountain pen etc which should have come to hand.” In common with most of the rest of the civilian population, she had no real understanding of the conditions soldiers were fighting in.

Maud herself did not live long after this. The records show that a she died in March 1919 in Epsom, Surrey and by March the following year Arthur Petherick, Frank’s stepfather, was answering the war pensions board’s queries. He stated that his stepson had never been married and had no siblings, half-siblings, grandparents, nephews or nieces or children. Frank’s half-sibling from his father’s first marriage is not mentioned.

Information from the 1911 census

22 St Michael’s Road, 11-year-old Frank Clifford John Mason’s home in 1911, is described as a 7-room tenement. He lived here with his mother Maud Mary Petherick, 37, from Ipswich, Suffolk, and stepfather Arthur Petherick, born in Dorking, Surrey and 3 boarders.