Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

KIA

Albert Edward Upton

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A. E. Upton
Service no. L/17507
Private, London Regiment, 7th Battalion, formerly Middlesex Regiment
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 21 March 1918, aged about 23
Remembered at Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension, Aisne, France

Information from the censuses

Albert Edward Upton, 16 in 1911, was described by his father Edward Upton as “youth – not settled” on the 1911 census. Edward repeated the word “unsettled’ in the next column (which is meant for information on the type of business a person is employed in) and added “butcher”, confusingly, to the next column (designed to record whether the business took place at home or outside the home). Edward Upton’s mistakes have given us a lot more information than most census returns. For instance, he tells us that he was born “between Brixton and Clapham Roads” and that he and his wife, Mary Ann Upton, at 54 the same age as her literal-minded husband and from Beaulieu, Hampshire, had been married 21 years last September. We also know that he worked as a goods guard for the London & South West Railway.  The couple had two children (one had died): Albert and Ada Mary Ellen Upton, 19, a service housemaid. Both were born, Edward tells us, were born at 7 Dawlish Street, South Lambeth, where the family still lived.

Herbert George Underwood

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H. G. Underwood
Service no. A/200471
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 10th Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 10 August 1917, aged about 34
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911, Herbert George Underwood, a motor cab washer, was 28 and living with his widowed mother and siblings in four rooms at 4 Dorset Road. His mother, Anne Underwood, 69, was from Northamptonshire. She had had 9 children, six surviving. Herbert’s brother Albert George Underwood, 26, was a brass trimmer in a foundry, and his sister Rose Underwood, 30, was a domestic servant born in Shoreditch, east London. Dressmaker Edith Murray, 21, a niece to Herbert and his siblings, lived with the family.

William Evan Turpin

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william-evan-turpin2
Wiliam Evan Turpin. Photo courtesy of George Cody.

W. E. Turpin
Service no. 140311
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 172nd Siege Bty.
Born in Clapham; enlisted in Clapham
Killed in action on 31 May 1918, aged 32
Remembered at Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery Extension, Italy

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

TURPIN, W. E., Gunner, R.G.A.
He joined in January 1917, and in the following May was sent to France, where he took part in the fighting at Bullecourt and Messines. Later he was transferred to Italy, where he was unfortunately killed in action on May 30th, 1918, and was buried at Montechiaro. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Great deeds cannot die.”
15, Elwell Road, Clapham, S.W.4.

William Turpin (centre) at Young's on Larkhall Lane, at the corner of Gaskell Street
William Turpin (centre) at Young’s on Larkhall Lane, at the corner of Gaskell Street. Courtesy of George Cody.

Information from the censuses

In 1911 William Evan Turpin was a 25-year-old grocer’s assistant, living in three rooms at 15 Elwell Road, Clapham, with his wife Emma Turpin (née Guy), 25, from Wolverhampton, and their young son William Joseph Turpin, 11 months, born in Clapham.Meanwhile, his parents, Jesse Turpin, a 48-year-old bricklayer’s labourer from Little London, Essex, and Mary A. Turpin, 48, from Averayon, Cardiganshire, were living at 62 Paradise Road, Stockwell.

William attested on 8 December 1915. He was 5ft 11in tall, with a 43in chest. His Service record states that he died of shell injuries to the right side of body, particularly his stomach and hand. After an Enquiry in the Field, these injuries were judged to be   ‘negligently self-inflicted’, ‘an accident due to disobedience to orders’.Lieutenant Colonel W.D. Alexandia came to the conclusion that Turpin died after ‘scraping the nose of an old Austrian fuze and having done that he walked away and the explosion took place in his hand.’ Alexandia stated that ‘all  men in the battery have been warned repeatedly not to tamper with enemy duds, fuzes etc.’

Emma was awarded a widow’s pension of 27s 7d a week for herself and her three children.

George Cody (Emma’s great nephew) adds: “Sadly William and Emma’s son Ernest Walter was also killed in action, in WW2, and is interred in a military cemetery also in Italy.”

William Evan Turpins Memorial Plaque, issued to his widow Emma. The plaques were made of bronze and popularly known as the Dead Man’s Penny because of their similarity to penny coins. Courtesy of George Cody.
william-and-emma-with-bill-and-ernie
William Evan Turpin with Emma and their sons William and Ernest. Courtesy of George Cody.

Robert William Trussler

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R.W. Trussler
Aviation Boatswain’s Mate, Royal Navy, HMS Russell
Died on 27 April 1916
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918
TRUSSLER, R. W., A.B., Royal Navy.
Serving at the outbreak of hostilities, having joined in 1913, he was with the H.M.S. “Russell” in the Mediterranean station in August 1914. He was engaged on important duties with his ship until he lost his life, when she was sunk on April 27th, 1916. He was entitled to the 1914-1915 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Whilst we remember, the Sacrifice is not in vain.”
29, Crimsworth Road, Wandsworth Road, S.W.8.

HMS Russell joined the Channel Fleet in November 1914 when at Portland and after bombarding the coast of Belgium was sent to the Dardanelles. She stayed at Mudros as support alongside HMS Hibernia in November 1915 but eventually took part in the evacuation on 7 January 1916. HMS Russell was mined on 27 April 1916 just off the coast of  Malta with the loss of over 100 lives.

James Trimmer

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J. Trimmer
Service no. 9374
Serjeant, The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Born in Battersea; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 18 August 1916, aged 26
CWGC: “Son of Harry and Sophia Trimmer, of London; husband of Jane Elizabeth Trimmer, of 94 Wilcox Rd., South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France

Information from the 1901 census

In 1911 James Trimmer was a private in the 1st Battalion of the North Lancashire Regiment. He was stationed at the Bhurtpore Battacks, in South Tedworth, Hampshire. Meanwhile, his parents, Harry Trimmer, 53, a locomotive engine driver from Holybourne, Hampshire, and Sophia Elizabeth Trimmer (née Adams), 56, from Marylebone, London were living in four rooms at 94 Wilcox Road, South Lambeth, where they had lived since at least 1901. James was one of their three surviving children (of six).

Stanley Humphrey Tremelling

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Stanley Humphrey Tremelling
Stanley Humphrey Tremelling. Photo © Jean Murray

S. H. Tremelling
Service no. 3000
Private, London Regiment, 1st/24th Battalion
Enlisted in Kennington; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 26 May 1915, aged about 22
CWGC: “Son of the late Mrs L. M. Tremelling.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

Stanley Humphrey Tremelling, 18 in 1911, was a machine ruler working for a general printing firm. He lived with his 55-year-old widowed mother, Lucy Tremelling (nee Blundell) from Poplar and 30-year-old stepsister Hilda Tremelling (his dead father’s daughter), who was working as a dressmaker. The family lived in eight rooms at 1 Milkwood Road in Brixton.

In 1901 James Tremelling was a 53-year-old patten maker from Hayle, Cornwall and the family lived at 6 Gladstone Street in Southwark with James Tremelling’s brother Hampton, a French family of three and an American miner.