Stockwell War Memorial

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KIA

Sidney Caiger

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S. Caiger
Service no. P.S.1743
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 16th Battalion
Killed in action 1 July 1916, aged about 23
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Sidney Caiger lived at 1 Bolney Street, Dorset Road. He enlisted at Battersea on the 20 March 1915 at the age of 21, and previously worked as a general labourer. He stood 5 feet 5½ inches tall, and his chest measurement was 35½ inches. He weighed just over 8½ stone. There were scars across his back. Caiger gave his father, Emery Caiger, as his next of kin. He was posted on 23 March 1915 and was listed as missing on 8 July 1916 and on 15 September he was registered as killed in action “in the field”. His war had lasted 1 year and 104 days.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Sidney Caiger, 17, was living with his parents Emery Edmund Caiger, 61, and Alice Caiger, 59, at home. He worked as a labourer in the mineral water trade. The family occupied 2 rooms at 48 St Marks Road, Kennington. Emery, a stonemason, was born in Westminster (1901 census) and Alice, a chair weaver, in Godalming, Surrey. Sidney was born in Battersea. Emery and Alice had 10 children, 8 of whom survived.
Information from the 1901 census
In 1901 the Caiger family was living at 9 Kellino Street, Tooting Graveney. The children on the census were
Rose Caiger, 16, an ironer born in Westminster
Alfred Caiger, 13, born in Kennington
Henry Caiger, 11, born in Battersea
Sidney Caiger, 7, also born in Battersea

Frederick H. S. Caiger

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frederick howard stewart caiger
Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger, from The War Illustrated Album De Luxe: The Story of the Great European War told by camera, pen and pencil (1915)

F. H. S. Caiger
Second Lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery, 92nd Bty. 17th Bde.
Killed in action on 11 November 1916, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Frederick Foord Caiger, M.D., and Madeline Caiger, of South Western Hospital [now Lambeth Hospital, Landor Road], Stockwell”
Remembered at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France

Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger was born on 23 September 1896, the only child of Dr Foord Caiger and his wife Madeline Orr Caiger. He was educated at Winchester and went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge on 1 October 1915 where he resided for one term. His father, superintendent at South Western Hospital for 39 years, died on 5 September 1929. His obituary is available at the BMJ Archives. There is at least one branch of the Caiger family still living in Stockwell.

Dr Foord Caiger donated the clock to the Stockwell War Memorial fund.

Caiger was born in 1896 and educated at Winchester (he was in the Officer Training Corps); he later went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge on 1 October 1915 where he resided for one term.

He was gazetted in December 1915 (meaning that his Army commission was announced in the Gazette), embarked for France on 23 April the following year and was attached to the 36q Battery. Caiger was admitted to the 87th Field Ambulance with a hydrocele (fluid in the scrotum) and later to the General Hospital suffering from scabies. This highly infectious skin disease was caused by infection by the mange mite. He was discharged on 24 June and posted to the 92th Battery in September.

Caiger was killed by a high explosive shell near Flers on 11 November 1916 and was buried at McCormick’s Post. In 1920 the War Office wrote to his father: “I am to inform you that … it has been found necessary to exhume the bodies buried in certain areas. The body of Second Lieutenant F.H.S. Caiger has therefore been removed from McCormick’s Post Cemetery and re-buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval.”

caiger headstoneIn 1922 Dr Foord Caiger donated the four-faced clock to the Stockwell War Memorial fund in memory of his son. “I… shall be very pleased to give it as a tribute to the memory of my only son, who fell in the battle of the Somme at the early age of 19.” he wrote to Samuel Bowller, secretary of the Memorial Committee. “The idea of placing a clock … struck me as such a ‘live’ and appropriate tribute to one who was born and always lived in Stockwell, and who entertained a warm affection for his home.”

University of London Officers Training Corps, Roll of War Service 1914-1919 (published 1921)

Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger
Second Lieutenant Royal Field Artillery – St. Thomas’s Hospital – Son of Dr. and Mrs. Foord Caiger of Stockwell – killed by a high explosive shell near Flers on 11th November 1916 – buried at McCormick’s Post.

Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger, a medical student at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, was born on 23 September 1896, the only child of Dr. Frederick Foord Caiger and his wife Madeline Orr Caiger. The family lived on the premises of South Western Hospital (now Lambeth Hospital) on Landor Road, where Dr. Caiger was Superintendent for 39 years.

John Henry Burns

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J. Burns (listed on the Memorial as J. Burns)
Corporal, Royal Army Medical Corps, 15th Field Ambulance
Service no. 6003.
Died on 20 April 1918, aged 28
Remembered at Tannay British Cemetery, Thiennes, France

Chris Burge writes:

John Henry Burn was born in 1890 and baptised on 15 January at St Mary the Less, Lambeth, the first child of Henry Thompson Burn and Elizabeth (née Castle) who had married on 11 May 1886 at St Paul, Walworth.  By 1901 there were five children and the family lived at 39 Neptune Street (Seaham Street in 1912) along with two other families, totalling 16 people. 

In the 1911 census, John, then 21, is shown living in three rooms at 35 Dashwood Road with his parents and six younger siblings. John’s father Henry worked as a bill poster,  while John worked as a cellarman. By then Elizabeth had given birth to 13 children, seven surviving. 

Dashwood Road, sandwiched between the Longhedge and Nine Elms locomotive works and criss-crossed by the lines of the competing railway companies, was an area of social deprivation.  John’s home was a few yards from both St Andrews Church and the Bolingbroke Public House. It  was never silent and always grimy. 

John’s service number is within the range of men who joined the RAMC early in 1912, when initial training took place at Aldershot.  To the Army he was 6003 Burns.

John was sent to France on 20 August 1914, one of four men attached to the Regimental Medical Officer’s team for the 5th Divisional Ammunition Column. At some later date he was transferred to the Division’s 15th Field Ambulance, a mobile medical unit with orderlies, bearers, horse and motor transport.  It had been a long war and on 14  April 1918 the 15th  FA moved near Boeseghem.  Five days later, a party of 20 men was sent to assist the 13th  FA, based at Thiennes, who were hurriedly moving their advanced dressing station to the safety of a cellar, after their farmhouse location was shelled.  The keeper of the 15th  FA war diary noted on 20 April that ‘1 man Cpl. Burns killed by shell at CROIX MORRAISE ref map 36A 1/40000 J.21.C.10.2’ (50°38’49.5”N 2°32’03.4”E Rue de Tannay France).          

John’s parents wanted an inscription for their son’s headstone at Tannay British Cemetery, making sure his name was correct.  It seems possible the evidence they provided to those dealing with the Stockwell War Memorial led to his name being spelt as he was known to the Army. 

Henry Thompson and Elizabeth Burn were living at 55 Gaskell Street by 1918, remaining there for several years after the war.

Charles Henry Burchell

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C. H. Burchell
Service no. SD/3529
Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, 13th Battalion
Killed in action aged 22 on 30 June 1916
Son of Thomas and Harriett Burchell, of Mate’s Nest, Balcombe, Sussex.
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

This is a tentative association. This is the only British-resident C. H. Burchell in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database.

William Bunyan

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W. Bunyan
Service no. 7848
Serjeant, York and Lancaster Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Killed in action age 34 on 20 July 1915
Son of the late William and Mary Elizabeth Bunyan; husband of Ellen Eliza Bunyan, of 8 Andalus Road, Landor Road, Stockwell, London. Native of Bengeo, Herts.
Remembered at New Irish Farm Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London 0DA.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The file for WIlliam Bunyan is very damaged and therefore difficult to read.

William first joined the York and Lancasters in 1904. He gave his occupation as “groom”. At the time of joining he was about 23 and stood 5 feet 4¼ inches tall, weighed 120 pounds and was 36 inches around the chest (which he could expand by 2 inches). The Regiment carefully noted his progress after six months Army service and a “gymnastic course”. He had grown a triumphant 2/20ths of an inch, gained 3 pounds and increased his chest measurement by an inch. His eyes and hair were noted as brown. He bore a scar on his left wrist and had a “white patch” on his left breast. He was judged to be of “good character” and indeed during this period of service gained a good conduct badge.

After serving over 10 years (with some intervals) Bunyan was killed on 20 July 1915.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 William Bunyan, then 27, was working as a miller’s labourer and living with his grandmother and sister in 4 rooms (including kitchen) at 12 Russell Street, Hertford. Mary Bunyan, 73, was a widow born in Wadesmill, Herfordshire. Florence Bunyan, 29, was working as a shop assistant for a confectioner (sweet shop). She, like William, was born in Bengeo, Herfordshire.

Sidney Alfred Bunker

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S. A. Bunker
Service no. G/8995
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 11th Battalion
Killed in action at about age 21 on 18 October 1915
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

The Bunker family lived at 4 Richmond Street, Kennington, Lambeth (the street has now disappeared). Henry Bunker, 51, was a widower from Shepherds Bush, west London, who worked as ox tongue curer. Three sons (all born in Lambeth) lived at home:
Charles Bunker, 19, a warehouseman
Sidney Bunker, 17, a press boy in the printing industry
Rodney Bunker, 14, an errand boy
Henry Bunker, 28, Beatrice Bunker, 26 and Ada Bunker, 23 (all named in the 1901 census) appear to have been living elsewhere.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 the Bunker family lived at 36 Richmond Street. Sidney’s mother, Mary, 41, was born in Camberwell. Henry Bunker, 18, was working as a carman; Beatrice Bunker, 16, was a “boot socker”; Ada Bunker, 13, Charles Bunker, 9, Sidney, 7, and Rodney, 4, were all at school.