Stockwell War Memorial

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KIA

Albert Edward Waymark

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A. E. Waymark
Service no. 40762
Private, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), 15th Battalion
Enlisted at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire
Killed in action on 26 November 1916, aged 37
CWGC: “Son of Mrs S. A. Waymark, of 38 Heyford Avenue, South Lambeth Road, London.”
Remembered at Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Details on Albert Edward Waymark are scant but bring to mind a vivid picture. We know that he was 5 feet 2¾ inches tall and weighed 9½ stone. He measured 38 inches around the chest, which he could expand by a further 2 inches. He stated that he was a concrete worker, and was 36 years and 113 days.

He was assigned to the 15th (Service) Battalion (Nottingham), a bantam battalion for troops under the normal regulation minimum of 5ft 3in.

Waymark joined the British Expeditionary Force on 18 July 1916. During that month, the battalion took part in the fighting for Arrow Head Copse and Maltz Horn Farm and for Falfemont Farm, on the Somme. 

After he was killed in action on 26 November 1916, his mother, Sarah Ann Waymark, living at 38 Heyford Avenue, South Lambeth, received his medals but no effects.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Albert Edward Waymark, 32, was boarding with the Shephard family at Donington-on-Bain, a small village near Louth in Lincolnshire. Waymark was born in Clapham. The host family, Frederick (also a bricklayer’s labourer) and Louisa Shephard, had lost six babies in their marriage. Only one, Ivy Shephard, 11, survived. Waymark had been in Lincolnshire since at least 1901, when, aged 21, he lived with in Wigtoft, Lincolnshire, again boarding. The 1891 census shows Waymark living with his parents, William H. Waymark, a valet, and Sarah A. Waymark, at 9 Stamford Buildings, South Lambeth Road.

George Joseph Watts

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G. J. Watts
Service no. S/1117
Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), 1st Battalion
Born in Westminster; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 23 April 1915, aged 34
CWGC: “Husband of Elizabeth J. Watts, of 75 Thorparch Road [this is an error, it is 95 Thorparch Road], Wandsworth Road, Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

When Watts, who was born in Westminster in 1881, attested on 12 October 1914, aged 34, he was working as an outside porter. He declared that he had  previously served in the 2nd battalion of the Royal West Kents, and was discharged in 1905 at the end of his term. He was 5ft 5in, just under 8½st with a 36½in chest. He had blue eyes, dark brown hair and a fresh complexion, with ‘profuse’ tattooing on both forearms and calves. His physical development was judged to be ‘Good’. He joined his battalion on 4 January 1915, was appointed  unpaid lance coproral on 12 February and and was posted missing  on 23 April. He had served a total of 194 days. His widow Elizabeth was left to bring up three children, Rose Elizabeth (born 1906), Lilian Maud (1909) and Violet May (1911). 

Alfred Herbert Watts

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A. H. Watts
Service no. 44390
Rifleman, Royal Irish Rifles, 15th Battalion; formerly London Regiment
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 14 October 1918, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Mrs S. J. Watts, of 28 Rosetta Street, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Heuvelland, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Watts’s name is included in Ireland’s Memorial Records 1914–1918. 

Information from the censuses

Alfred Herbert Watts, a 13-year-old schoolboy in 1911, also found work as a milkboy. He lived at 28 Rosetta Street,  South Lambeth, where his family had five rooms. Alfred’s father, George Henry Watts, 49, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire was a carman, working for the London & South West Railway. His mother, Sarah Jane Watts (née Doel), 46, was from Yarnbrook, Wiltshire. They had two other children: Water Henry Watts, 22, a packer in a tea warehouse, and Elsie May Watts, 17, a dressmaker.  Daisy Laura Neale, 9, a niece from Heywood, Wiltshire, lived with the family, as did Albert Taylor, a 35-year-old single boarder, whose occupation is unrecorded.

Arthur Spurgeon Waterman

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A. S. Waterman
Service no. 3295
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 12th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 18 July 1916, aged about 23
Remembered at Dranoutre Military Cemetery, Heuvelland, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Information from the censuses

Arthur Spurgeon Waterman, named after the famous preacher and founder of Stockwell Orphanage, was a house painter. Aged 19 in 1911, he lived with his parents and four of his five siblings at 100 Paradise Road, where the family had eight rooms. They had lived at that address since at least 1901. George Phillip Waterman, 56, was a house decorator, born in Clapham; Jane Waterman, 58, was born in Islington. Lillian Gertrude Waterman, 23, was a “lady clerk” for a manufacturer of toilet preparations; Jennie Rebecca Waterman, 21, was “at home”; George Gordon Waterman, 20, was a painter; Rose Ann Waterman, 17, was an invoice clerk for a printing firm. All were born in Clapham. Four other children did not survive.

William George Ware

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W. G. Ware
Service no. 1187
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Born in Brixton; enlisted in Westminster; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 27 March 1915
CWGC: “Son of Mr W. H. Ware, of 34 Bessborough Gardens, Westminster, London.”
Remembered at Ferme Buterne Military Cemetery, Houplines, Nord, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the 1911 census

William George Ware, 16, was a junior clerk at the Army & Navy Stores. He lived at 16 Dalyell Road, Stockwell, with his parents, William Henry Ware, 45, a foreman for a timber merchant, born in Battersea, and Edith Annie Ware (née Etheridge), 39, from Chelsea, and elder sister Edith Annie Ware, 17, a “lady clerk” at a coal office. The family had eight rooms. WIlliam Henry Ware has written “householder” proudly in the space for “Number of rooms in this dwelling.”