Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

Lambeth

Arthur Worby

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A. Worby
Service no. G/61093
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Died on 16 November 1918, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of John and Mary Ann Worby, of 76 Crimsworth Road, Wandsworth, London.”
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, London SW17

Brother-in-law to Thomas James Woodley

Information from the 1911 census

Arthur Worby, 12 in 1911, lived at 76 Crimsworth Road, South Lambeth. His father widower John Worby, 53, was an Army pensioner from Cambridge. There were five siblings on the census return – their places of birth reflecting their father’s Army career. Emma Worby, 24, was born in Chatham, Kent; Jessie Worby, 20, a laundress, was born in Port Royal, Jamaica; John Worby, 15, an errand boy, was born in Dublin; Frank William Worby, 16, an errand boy, was born in Middlesbrough; Arthur Worby, 12, was born in South Lambeth. Arthur’s nephew, Arthur Worby Gridner, 1, lived with the family.

Information from Howard Anderson, great-nephew

“Arthur Worby came from a military family, his father John Worby was career soldier, leaving the Royal Engineers as a Quarter Master Serjeant (the old spelling) after 21 years service. Arthur was one of 11 children, most born in barracks around the world, one was my grandmother Jessie, born on a troop ship in Kingston, Jamaica.

“Arthur Worby’s sister Jessie married Albert Allen (a common Stockwell name) who was an Old Contemptible who survived the war. In the 1st Middlesex Regiment, he was Mentioned in Despatches 3 times for staying behind with the wounded. His son Ted repeated that at Arnhem in 1944, being awarded the Dutch Bronze Cross for gallantry, for staying with the wounded when the Germans overran the town.”

Arthur Worby was brother-in-law to Thomas James Woodley, who married his sister Ethel Maude Worby.
Visit 1stmiddlesex.com for more information.

William Charles Viney

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W. C. Viney
Service no. 179460
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, No 1 Depot
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Camberwell; lived in Lambeth
Died on 21 February 1918, aged 31
CWGC: “Husband of Florence Emily Viney, of 3 Portland Place South, Clapham Road, London.”
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, London SW17

Information from parish records and 1911 census

William Charles Viney, 25, and Florence Emily Sheaff, 27, married at All Saints Church, Newington, on 27 August 1911. William described himself as a stock keeper of confectionary, and his father, William Viney, as a general labourer. The 1911 census shows William Viney as boarding at 7 Freemantle Street, Newington (the address he gives on his marriage record), where he lived with engine fitter Alfred Webster and his family. Viney’s occupation here is given as “store keeper”.

Henry Thomas Moss

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H. T. Moss
Service no. 70863
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 46th Anti-Aircraft Bty.; formerly 42343, Royal Field Artillery, and 22851, 3rd Gloucester Regiment
Died on 28 October 1917 at age 46 (theatre of war is given as “home”)
Born at Gosport; enlisted at Lambeth
CWGC: “Son of Henry and Jane Moss; husband of Elizabeth Alice Moss, of 114 Stockwell Road, London.”
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, Blackshaw Road, Tooting

Father of Henry Louis Moss (their names are, uniquely, listed side by side).

Information from the 1911 census

Henry Thomas Moss, 40, born in Gosport, Hampshire, was the father of 12 children (11 surviving and nine named on the census). He and Elizabeth Alice Moss, 38, from Southwark, south London, lived with their children in 9 rooms at 114 Stockwell Road.
Henry Louis Moss, 19, a goldsmith, born in Walworth
Amy Elizabeth Moss, 18, a dressmaker, born in Kennington
Elsie Moss, 17, a tailoress, born in Chelsea
Louis Masterson Moss, 15, an errand boy, born in Camberwell
William Alfred Moss, 14, a district messenger boy, born in Southwark
Elizabeth Alice Moss, 13, born in Southwark
Bertie Thomas Moss, 9, born in Southwark

Harry George Mead

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H. G. Mead
Service no. 37888
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 37th Battalion, transferred to 63909, Labour Corps
Died on 4 November 1920 at about age 42
CWGC: “Husband of Ada Mead, of 40, Wilcox Rd., South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, London SW17

British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920

In 1919, when the pension board assessed Harry George Mead, they found him 100 per cent disabled. His symptoms included shortness of breath, expectoration, anaemia and haemoptysis (coughing up blood). His general condition was poor. Mead had contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, and this was attributed to his war service. He had been posted for duty in July 1916 and had served 2 years and 217 days in France.

It was clear that Mead would be unable to return to work (he had been a painter). There was a note in the file to investigate the status of their adopted son, Robert, then 12. The pension board awarded him 27s 6d a week for six months, and 40s for 64 weeks thereafter, with 10s for his wife, Ada.

Information from the 1911 census

Harry George Mead, 33, and born in Lambeth, was a house painter. In 1911 he was married and living with his wife, Ada Mead, 34, who was from Brislington, Bristol, in 2 rooms at 12 Paradise Road, Stockwell. They had been married for 5 years and had no children.

Harry Frank Handel

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H. F. Handel
Service no. 16005
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, 20th Reserve Bty.
Died age 34 on 9 March 1915
Handel died at home on 9 March 1915 from pneumonia, mitral disease (disease of the heart valves) and heart failure.
CWGC: “Husband of A. H. Handel, of 2 Arlington Mansions, 18A Morat Street, Brixton, London. Served in the South African Campaign.”
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, London and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

See also George Frederick Billingsley and Sydney Walter Billingsley (stepsons).
There is also a thread about Harry Frank Handel on The Great War Forum.

Information from the 1911 census

Harry Frank Handel, 29, had been married to Ada Harriet Billingsley, 42, for 1 year when he completed the 1911 census. The family was then living in 3 rooms at 101 Cornwallis Road, Upper Holloway, north London. The couple had one son, Robert Harry Handel, 11 months, born in Highgate, north London (their daughter, Ida Helen Handel, was born in in 1915). The household included Harry’s stepsons: Sydney and George Billingsley, both remembered on the Stockwell War Memorial, and a stepdaughter, Winifred Kate Billingsley, 9. Harry Handel was an army pensioner, now working as a cook.

Information from the 1891 census

In 1891 Harry Handel was 9, living with his 6 siblings and parents in Camberwell (111 Crofton Road). His father, Harry Robert Handel, 36, was a pipe importer, born in Lambeth. His mother, Elizabeth Ann Handel, also 36, was born in Heytesbury, Wiltshire. The children on the 1891 census were
Elizabeth Kate Handel, 12, born in Lambeth
Nellie Eliza Handel, 10, born in Newington
Harry Frank Handel, 9, born in Newington
Amy Louise Handel, 7, born in Newington
Arthur E. L. Handel, 6, born in Newington
Ida Gertrude Handel, 1, born in Camberwell
Robert William Handel, 1 month, born in Camberwell
Annie Harriet Lawrence, 13 and born in Heytesbury, Wiltshire lived in as a general servant.

Victor Leslie Corben

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V. L. Corben
Second Lieutenant, Royal Fusiliers
Secondary Regiment: Rifle Brigade, attd. 52nd Battalion
Died age 23 on 22 July 1918
Son of Fred and Esther Margaret Corben, of “Stonehaven”, 55 St Albans Avenue, Bournemouth. Born in London.
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, London SW17

In July 1918 Victor Leslie Corben, a Second Lieutenant attached to the Rifle Brigade, was on leave in London when he started to suffer headaches and fever. He was admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital (this building, now known as the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, sits opposite Wandsworth Prison). A few days later, appendicitis was diagnosed and on 7 July he was operated on by an Army surgeon. He had further surgery to drain a pelvic abscess but died the next day at 10.40am.

Corben’s personal effects, a suitcase and a small parcel of personal property, were sent to his father, Fred Corben, a stone merchant of “Hillside”, 51 Union Road, Clapham.

The will was proved by his father, who undertook to settle any debts left by his son. “The loss of the boy is indeed a severe blow to us,” Fred wrote to Major Bright of the Rifle Brigade at Colchester in August, thanking him for his sympathy and for the settlement of Victor’s accounts.

However, when Fred applied to the Army for funds to cover his son’s funeral expenses, he was turned down. Your son died in England, of an illness not related to his service, they said. Fred was outraged, barely concealing his anger in a note written on 10 December 1918. For him, the appendicitis was clearly connected with the wounds Victor had sustained the previous year, and also with a bout of trench fever. “I was never consulted in reference to the operations which were performed on him at the hospital,” he complained. “[Yet] as soon as he had passed away in his country’s service I was called upon to pay for the coffin in which he was to be buried. … This seems to me a gross injustice.”  The Army was intransigent: “No grant for Army funds is admissable,” it stated.

Victor Corben was born in Clapham on 23 February 1895, and after boarding at Cranleigh School, Surrey, worked in mechanical engineering. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed just over 10 stone. The 1911 census shows the Corben family living in 10 rooms at 51 Union Road. Fred, then 49, was born in Lambeth; his wife, Esther Margaret, 48, was from Chelsea. Their daughter Florence, 25, was “assisting in the business,” as was Leslie’s brother Frank H. Corben, 20. A servant, Mary Bower, 26, from Langton Matravers in Dorset, had been with the family for at least 10 years (she appears on both the 1901 and the 1911 censuses). Later Fred and Esther moved to “Stonehaven,” 55 St. Albans Avenue, Bournemouth.

Information from the 1911 and 1901 censuses
In 1911 the Corben family lived in 10 rooms at 51 Union Road. Fred, then 49, was a stone merchant, born in Lambeth; his wife, Esther, 48, was born in Chelsea. Their daughter Florence, 25, was described as “assisting in the business”, as was Frank H. Corben, 20. Victor Leslie Corben, 16, meanwhile, was a pupil at Cranleigh School at Cranleigh, Surrey.

Victor is on the 1901 census as a six-year-old, although Florence is not. In 1901 there was a second son, Fred N. Corben, then aged three. He is not on the 1911 census, and may have died in the intervening years (the 1911 census shows that the Corbens had lost one child by that date). The household kept a live-in servant, Mary Bower, 26, from Langton Matravers in Dorset, who had been with them for at least 10 years (she appears on the 1901 and the 1911 censuses). In 1901 the family kept two servants, the other being Florence Dawson, aged 20, who was born in Battersea.