Stockwell War Memorial

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KIA

James Trace

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J. Trace
Service no. 8867
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), 1st/16th Battalions
Enlisted in Westminster; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 1 July 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the censuses

James Trace was an office boy for a firm of solicitors. He shared four rooms at 70b Hackford Road, Stockwell with his parents and siblings. His father, unemployed cab driver John Trace, 59, was from Torbryan, Devon; his mother, Lucy Trace, 51, was from Leicestershire. Three other children lived at home: Maude Trace, 20, a dressmaker; William Trace, 18, like James a solicitor’s office boy;  and Arthur Trace, 14, an errand boy. There were seven other siblings.

James was baptised at St John the Divine, Kennington, on 4 September 1895, when his parents lived at 116 Cowley Road. At that time his father described himself as an ostler (he looked after horses at an inn).

Charles John Totham

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C. J. Totham
Service no. G/20867
Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), then London Regiment, posted to 1st/20th Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Camberwell
Killed in action on 2 June 1918, aged 18
CWGC: “Son of Arthur John and Emma Alice Totham, of 2a Tasman Road, Landor Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, France

Information from the censuses

We have not found Charles Totham on the 1911 census, but his parents and siblings are registered at 32 Eastcote Street, Stockwell, where they had two rooms. Arthur John Totham, 33, was a “contractor’s carman” from Coggeshall, Essex;Emma Alice Totham, 33, was from Castle Combe, Wiltshire. Charles’s siblings were Lilian Annie Totham, 8, and Frederick Thomas Totham, 3, both born in Lambeth.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

When joining the Kings Royal Rifle Corps at Battersea on 10 March 1915, Charles Totham gave his age to the attesting officer as 18 years and 272 days and his occupation as “carman”.

Totham was posted to Winchester on 12 March and then to Sheerness on 19 March, but he was found out on 19 June 1915 and discharged, “having made a mis-statement as to age in enlistment.” He had served 102 days. He returned to his family at 24 Lingham Street, Stockwell.

He was a slight lad, although at 5 feet 3 inches and weighing 121 pounds with a 35 inch chest he was not unusual. Many recruits were similarly slender and he was judged fit to serve. But he was only 15, possibly 16.

Later, he joined the Queen’s Own and died, killed in action at age 18.

Albert John Tooley

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A. J. Tooley
Service no. 1797
Private, London Regiment (County of London), 20th Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Blackheath; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 23 January 1916, aged 23
CWGC: “Only son of John and Bessie E. Tooley, of 44 Stockwell Green, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses

Albert John Tooley, 18 in 1911, was a student teacher born in Stockwell. He lived in a three-roomed apartment at 14 Kimberley Road, Stockwell with his parents John Tooley, 56, a railway guard from Stockwell, and Bessie Tooley, 56, from St Columb, Cornwall. He was an only child (his parents had had two other children who died).

He was born in Stockwell on 3 May 1892 and baptised at St Andrew’s, on 29 June. 

Albert George Tilling

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A. G. Tilling
Service no. 83361
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 93rd Bde.
Born in Wandsworth; enlisted in Camberwell
Killed in action on 8 June 1917, aged about 23
Remembered at Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918
TILLING, A. G., Gunner, R.F.A.
Volunteering in 1915, he was sent to France in the same year and was in action on the Somme and at Ypres. He fell fighting at Armentieres in 1917, and was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“And doubtless he went in splendid company.”
82, Wilcox Road, Wandsworth Road, S.W.8.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The file for Albert Tilling in WWI Service Records archive relates to an Albert Tilling born in Lambeth in 1895. I have made a connection between the Albert Tillings on the 1911 census, in the National Roll and in the Service Records. However, there are some anomalies, one of them being occupation. The 1911 census gives Albert Tilling as a horse keeper working for the London and South West Railway. The Army records state that Albert Tilling was an electrician’s mate. For me, this does not rule out a connection, but it brings in an element of doubt.

Electrician’s mate Albert Tilling, born in Lambeth and two days’ shy of his 20th birthday, signed up with the Dragoons of the Line (2nd Reserve Cavalry Regiment) at Clifton Street on 20 August 1914. He was tall and thin (5 feet 10 inches and only 9 stone, with a chest of 34½ inches) and his complexion was noted as “sallow”. However, he was accepted as fit for service.

However, after 65 days the Army noticed its mistake – this man’s physical development and pulse rate were “poor”. What’s more, he was suffering from tuberculosis. Tilling was duly discharged on 23 October.

In 1915, possibly cured of his TB or in remission, he must have enlisted again, this time with the Royal Field Artillery, and in 1917 he was killed in action.

Information from the 1901 census
In 1911 Albert Tilling, 17, was a horse keeper, working for the London and South West Railway. His family lived in six rooms at 82 Wilcox Road, South Lambeth. Albert’s father John Tilling, 50, from Wiltshire, was also a horse keeper for L&SW Railway. His mother, Annie Tilling, 49, was from Hampshire. There were four siblings: Florrie Tilling, 19, a waitress in a restaurant; Sidney Tilling, 14; Harry Tilling, 11; William John Tilling, 8. All the children were born in Lambeth. A cousin, Harry Burrell, 20, another horsekeeper for the railway, shared their home, as did a boarder, William Shickey, 30, a single fireman from Somerset. The family had lived at 82 Wilcox Road since at least 1901. In 1901 Albert was six and living with his family at 82 Wilcox Road. There were five boarders, three of them railway horse keepers, born in Iddesdone, Berkshire

Francis William Thurgood

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F. W. Thurgood
Service no. G/1529
Private, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 8th Battalion
Killed in action on 25 September 1915, aged about 20
Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918
THURGOOD, F. W., Pte., The Buffs (East Kent Regiment).
Mobilised at the outbreak of war he immediately proceeded to France, and fought gallantly in the Retreat from Mons, and in the Battles of the Marne and Aisne. He also took part in the severe fighting as Ypres, and was unhappily killed in action at Loos in September 1915. He was entitled to the Mons Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“He passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice.”
11, Arlesford Road, Stockwell, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Francis William Thurgood was a 16-year-old doctor’s page living at 11 Arlesford Road, Stockwell. He lived with his parents, William Francis Thurgood, 42, a night inspector for trams employed by London County Council, and Ellen Thurgood, 40. They were both originally from Terling Witham, Essex. Francis’s six siblings were:
Gertrude Gladys Thurgood, 20, and Kathleen Eunice Thurgood, 20, both dressmakers born in Peckham
Francis William Thurgood
Mildred Emily Thurgood, 14
Irene Madeline Thurgood, 12
Leslie Alfred Thurgood, 9
Muriel Lilian Thurgood, 6
One child had died. The family had 5 rooms.

Joseph Charles Terrett

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J. C. Terrett
Service no. 2746
Private, London Regiment, “C” Coy. 1st/23rd Battalion
Killed in action on 26 May 1915, aged 40
Enlisted at Clapham Junction; lived in Brixton
CWGC: “Son of Mrs C. Terrett, of 58 Dalyell Road, Stockwell, London; husband of Mary Anne Terrett, of 187 Arthur Street, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA (which gives the name as Joseph Terratt)

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

When Joseph Charles Terrett joined enlisted on 8 September 1914 at St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction he left behind a wife, Mary Ann, and three boys: 14-year-old Joseph, 10-year-old Reginald, and Geoffrey, who was 2.

The Service Record file for Joseph Terrett does not contain much information about him. We know that he was 39 and that had previously served in the 4th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, but the file includes no physical description of him or his medical state, his behaviour or his movements other than that he joined his “service battalion” on 12 November 1914.

There is a torn scrap of paper listing some of his effects: photo, knife, torch, mineral (a lump of unusual rock, I am supposing).

Most of the file is taken up with letters concerning the whereabouts of Joseph’s widow Mary Ann Terrett in order that the authorities could forward her husband’s medals. Efforts to find her via her solicitors, the rather wonderfully named Balderston, Warren and Pothecary of Bedford Row, W.C.1, drew a blank, as they were not even sure who Terrett was. On 3 April 1922 they wrote to the Infantry Record Office: “Shall be glad if you will give us any further information re the identify of Private Terrett. We do not appear to know him but our address may have been give on..” and here the letter ends – the bottom has been torn off. Another small mystery.

It appears that back in 1920 Mrs. Terrett’s neighbour at Knowle Road (that letter is torn too, so we cannot be sure of her name but it looks like she may have been a Mrs Lawrence) put the authorities right: “Mrs. Terrett has sailed with the children for Canada June 18th 1920,” she told them. She had given Mrs Lawrence permission to open her letters. “I know that she will be glad to receive any decoration that may be awarded to her late husband. … I have also written to her.”

These small scraps (literally) of documents do not together tell much of a narrative. Perhaps, however, they illustrate in a personal way how the war caused, not just loss of life on an unprecedented scale, but disruption and and dispersal. Would Mary Ann Terrett have taken her three sons to Canada at her time of life (she was nearly 50) if Joseph had not died and options for her in London been limited? We may never find out.

Mary Ann died in Canada in 1948.

Joseph Charles Terrett was one of seven  of Joseph Benjamin Dobell Terrett , a cabinet-maker, and Louisa (née Butler), both from Newington, southeast London. 

Information from the censuses

Joseph Charles Terrett, who was 36 in 1911, was a school attendance officer working for London County Council. He lived with his wife, Mary Ann Terrett, 38, at 65 Knowle Road (now gone but Knowle Close, at the back of Wynne Road, remains), Brixton, where they had four rooms. There were two sons: Joseph St. John Terrett, 10, born in Wandsworth and Reginald St. John Terrett, 6, born in Clapham. Another child born to the couple had died, and a son was born shortly after the 1911 census. Ten years previously, Joseph Charles Terrett was described as a “gas meter index taker”. He was born in Bermondsey. At that time he, Mary Ann and son Joseph lived at 122 New Kent Road, Newington. In 1891 he worked as a printer’s assistant. His father, also called Joseph, was an envelope cutter, from Newington (married to Caroline Terrett, from Southwark, the Mrs. C. Terrett on the War Graves database).