Stockwell War Memorial

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Sidney Williams

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S. Williams

Rifleman, “D” Coy., London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles)
Service no. 556984
Died on 11 May 1918, aged about 36
Remembered at Cologne Southern Cemetery, Germany

Chris Burge writes:

Sidney Williams was born in 1881, the youngest of Charles Richard Williams and Mary Ann Ford’s 10 children. Sidney spent his formative years in the heart of Southwark, living near London Bridge Station in Borough High Street above his father’s successful clothier and tailor shop. At the time of the 1901 census, Sidney was not quite 20 and working as an auctioneer’s clerk. 

On retirement, Charles Richard and Mary Ann Williams moved to the relative quiet of 86 Gauden Road, North Clapham, where they rented four rooms. In the 1911 census, Sidney, 29, was living there with his parents and two sisters, 45-year-old Emily and 35-year-old Ada Lily, a schoolteacher. Sidney’s parents were now 73 and his father Charles lived on a masonic annuity (he had joined the Royal Jublia masonic lodge in the year before Sidney was born). Sidney was still working as an auctioneer’s clerk. Six other rooms at the same address were home to the family of Sidney’s older brother Mark Albert Williams, his wife Ellen and their three children. 

Sidney Williams married Ethel Mary Edwards, a dressmaker originally from Dorset, in the spring of 1914 in a civil ceremony, which took place near the home of Ethel’s married sister Florence Richards who lived near Acton Green, west London. The couple lived in Jefferys Road, Clapham after their marriage. Ethel died soon after the birth of their son Frederick Charles Sidney Williams on 27 October 1916 and was buried in Wandsworth cemetery. 

Sidney Williams may have been put on Army Reserve due to his personal circumstances, but around August 1917 he was called up and processed at the Central Recruitment Office in Whitehall, joining the 16th Bn. London Regiment as rifleman 556984 Williams, leaving baby Frederick in the care of his late wife’s sister, Florence Robinson. He entered France on 2 January 1918, and was one of around 50 reinforcements who joined the Queen’s Westminster Rifles in the first week of 1918. 

They moved to the Gravelle sector in February where they remained during March. It was Sidney’s misfortune to be in the forward zone on 28 March 1918 when they suffered the full force of the enemy’s spring offensive, and was among the many killed, wounded and missing. After suffering a wound to his right leg, he was taken prisoner and held in the Friedrichsfeld POW Camp, near Wesel in Germany. Poor camp conditions and the lack of good medical care led to his death from sepsis on 11 May 1918, as reported on the camp’s ‘Toten-List’ (death list), dated 21 May 2018. 

When taken prisoner Sidney had given his 80-year-old father Charles as his next of kin and he would have been the first to be informed of their youngest son’s death. Both Charles and Mary Ann died in 1919, and it was left to other family members to arrange for Sidney’s name to be added to the Stockwell War Memorial. 

Sidney’s son Frederick remained with his aunt Florence and her husband and died in 1988, aged 72.

S. Williams. Rifleman, “D” Coy., London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles). Service no. 556984. Died on 11 May 1918, aged about 36. Remembered at Cologne Southern Cemetery, Germany

Frederick James Edmund Spencer

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F.J. Spencer
Second Lieutenant, Wiltshire Regiment
Died of influenza as a prisoner of war on 9 November 1918, aged 23
Remembered at Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany 

Chris Burge writes:

Frederick James Edmund Spencer was born on 25 September 1895 in the Manchester area (Date of birth as in CWGC records, alternatively 25 September 1896 as recorded in German POW records. No registration of birth found in the GRO index.)Frederick’s half-bother Reginald Spencer Wilson was born on 31 October 1900 in Pimlico, London, after Frederick’s mother Maud Spencer married William Wilson on 25 July 1899 at All Saints Church, Stretford, Lancashire. William was an Army tailor and Maud was described as a 27-year-old spinster at the time of her marriage, which was witnessed by her sister Adeline. Maud’s address was 22 Sydney Street and she had worked as a dressmaker before her marriage. Reginald Spencer Wilson was baptised on 27 November 1900 at St Saviour’s, St George’s Square, Pimlico, London, when William and Maud lived at 22 Aylesford Street. Their address was close to the Royal Army Clothing Depot in Pimlico.

In the 1901 census, William, Maude and baby Reginald were in Lancashire again, recorded as boarders at 20 Sydney Street, Stretford, next door to Maud’s widowed mother and siblings. William Wilson was now a lance corporal. Frederick Spencer did not appear in the 1901 census. 

Maud Spencer died on 15 December 1907, while her husband was based in Aldershot. William Wilson was married for a second time in 1908 to Margaret Elizabeth McPherson on 23 July at Holy Trinity, Vauxhall Bridge Road. Margaret gave her address as 3 Bessborough Place and William his as ‘Borden Camp Hants’. 

In the 1911 census, Sergeant William Wilson was a master tailor with the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment at St George’s Barracks, Malta. His wife Margaret and their children were in the married quarters, along with Reginald Spencer Wilson. Frederick Spencer’s whereabouts in 1911 are unknown. 

William Wilson left the Army in 1912 on the termination of his second period of service, with the intention of returning to 3 Bessborough Place. He had been in Egypt before his final discharge in Jersey. He soon moved his family across Vauxhall Bridge to Lambeth and was in Kennington by 1913 and first appeared at 22 Guildford Street in 1915, an address close to St. Barnabas Church. It was in March 1915 that Frederick’s half-brother Reginald joined the Army as a boy solider and was with the 5 Coldstream Guards. Reginald was an office boy at the time of joining and gave 22 Guildford Street as his home address. The recurrence of a childhood ailment was not helped by an operation to drain an abscess on his right kidney and Reginald was discharged unfit on 29 December 1916.

Frederick Spencer volunteered at the end of 1915, or early January 1916, and served as Private F/2792 in the Middlesex Regiment (data from Medal Index card of Frederick James Edmund Spencer). His service number and first date of entry in France on 4 May 1916 indicate he served in the 23rd Battalion, nicknamed the 2nd Football Battalion, of the Middlesex Regiment. Frederick Spencer served for around a year on the Western Front before he was recommended for a commission. He was gazetted on 1 August 1917 as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Wiltshire Regiment, the notice appearing in the 1 September 1917 issue of the London Gazette. 

F.J.E. Spencer was one of several junior officers who joined the 2nd Wiltshire at the Wytschaete Sector from the Rouen base in October 1917. The keeper of the battalion’s war diary noted on 6 October 1917 that: ‘2/Lts G.R Gosling, G.D. Chapman, C.D. Baker, G.M. Jeans and C. Hirschhorn joined from Rouen and posted to “C”, “B”, “D”, “A” and “D” Coys. respectively.

Frederick Spencer’s arrival was noted on the 10 October 1917: ‘2/Lt F.J.E. Spencer arrived from Rouen & posted to “B” Coy.’

Like Frederick, William Robert Gosling (MM) and Cecil Hirschhorn were commissioned from the ranks. All had been the afforded the status, privileges and responsibilities of officer gentlemen, literally on a temporary basis for the duration of the war. As far as the battalion’s war diary is concerned, 2/Lt F.J.E. Spencer remained an anonymous figure for many months until he was noted as being on leave on 16 March 1918, one of the last of his original group to be granted leave. A fact that saved his life, at least in the short term. 

The 2nd Wiltshire were holding a part of the front in the Savy area, south-west of St Quentin when they were in the path of the enemy’s spring offensive which broke on 21 March 1918. Subjected to an intense five-hour bombardment, they faced an infantry assault of overwhelming numbers and were forced to give ground over the coming days. They were not relieved until 1 April 1918, by which time the battalion had lost 23 officers either killed, wounded or missing. Of other ranks, four were killed, nine wounded and 597 were missing. The battalion had in many senses ceased to exist. 

Among the missing were Frederick’s fellow officers 2/Lts W. R. Gosling and C.D. Baker. It had been a fluid and chaotic period, but there was no indication when, or if, Frederick Spencer had rejoined, what remained of his battalion by April, or when they had moved north again in mid-April. A composite battalion was formed from what was left of the 2nd Wiltshires and 2nd Bedfordshire on 19 April 1918. Between 25 and 28 April this composite formation was heavily engaged in the area south of the Yser Canal near a feature called the ‘spoil bank’. According to the 2nd Bedfordshire war dairy, ‘Captain Smith (Wilts R.) and part of his company were captured on 26 April 1918’ after the enemy crossed the canal. It is possible 2/Lt. F. J. E. Spencer was taken prisoner here, but his name does not appear in either the 2nd Wiltshires or 2nd Bedfordshire official war diaries. It is only German records which show he was taken prisoner in the Wytschaete area on 25 April 1918. 

Frederick was held at the Offizierlager, Mainz, a camp housing up to 700 prisoners. His records gave his address as 22 Guildford Road and incorrectly referred to his father as W. Spencer. Frederick James Edmund Spencer died in the camp hospital on 9 November 1918 of ‘infolge lungenentzundung und grippe’– he had contracted influenza. A death certificate was issued at the Festungslazarette I.Mainz dated 11 November 1918, the date of the ceasefire, and a copy passed to the International Red Cross, stamped ‘Comminqué famille 29.11.18’. 

At the end of the war, the balance of Frederick James Edmund Spencer’s account and war gratuity, which amounted to £98 15s 1d, was paid to his only blood relative, his half-brother Reginald Spencer Wilson. A RNVR record dated April 1919 shows Reginald Wilson had been a ship’s steward and part of the Mercantile Marine Reserve when he volunteered to work on mine clearance for a period of six months. Reginald passed way in Essex in 1927, aged 27. 

When the Stockwell War memorial was unveiled in 1922, William Wilson and family were still living at 22 Guildford Road, which remained their home until at least 1939.

Harry Norris

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H. Norris
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, 6th Ammunition Col.
Service No. 70166
Died as a prisoner of war on 24 September 1916, aged about 23
Remembered at Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq 

Chris Burge writes:

Henry (known as Harry) Norris was born in 1893 in Stepney, east London, the first child of parents of Thomas Henry and Edith (née Hollole) who had married the previous year at St Mark’s Church, Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets. Harry’s father was a serving Metropolitan Police Constable, born in Chelsea, and his mother Edith was originally from Cornwall. Harry’s younger brother Arthur was born in Chelsea in 1898 and in the 1901 census the Norris family were living in Stepney. Another child, Rose, was born in 1900 in Stepney but died as an infant and a second brother, Charles, born in 1901 and baptised at St Anne’s on South Lambeth Road on 5 August 1904, died in 1906. Henry’s third brother Albert was born Lambeth in 1905. 

In 1904 the family’s address was 39 Coronation Buildings, opposite Vauxhall Park on South Lambeth Road (since demolished and replaced with offices). In the 1911 census, Thomas and Edith Norris were living with their three sons in four rooms at 26 Radnor Terrace, off South Lambeth Road, a property that also housed two other people in one other room. Henry’s father was now 44 and his mother 46; they had been married for 18 years. Thomas listed all their children on the census return including the deceased Rose and Charles. Harry was working as a waiter at the War Office. 

Just a year later, Harry had decided to join the Army. His enlistment is recorded in the pages of the Surrey Recruitment Register. He had attested on 26 April 1912 at Kingston, Surrey, joining the Royal Horse Artillery. His stated age was 19 years 5 months and he was 5ft 9¾in in height, weighed 10st 6lb and had blue eyes. His occupation was described as ‘light porter’ and reference was made to Charles Dawes, a cheesemonger who lived with his family at 237 Wandsworth Road.

Harry was in India, serving in the Anglo-Indian Army at Kirkee (now known as Khadki) when war broke out. When the 6th (Poona) Division was mobilised in September 1914, Harry was posted to the 6th Ammunition Column of the Royal Field Artillery. On 16 October the division sailed from Bombay for Mesopotamia (an area encompassing present-day Iraq and Kuwait, and parts of Iran, Syria and Turkey), ostensibly to protect the Anglo-Persian oil pipeline and the refinery at Abadan in the Persian Gulf. Oil was vital to the British Navy. The Anglo-Indian force landed in the Shattl-Al Arab waterway in November 1914 and Harry Norris was recorded as disembarking on the 20th.

Beyond the marshlands of the lower Tigris was flat desert with no roads and no water, except in rivers. In an ill-fated advance to capture Baghdad, the Anglo-Indian forces were repulsed at Ctesiphon (Tusbun, or Taysafun) on 24 November 1915. Pursued by Ottoman forces, 6th (Poona) Division retreated to Kut-al-Amara but were surrounded and cut off after digging in on 7 December 1915. On 29 April 1916, after 147 days, the siege of Kut-al-Amara ended in a humiliating surrender. An estimated 10,061 troops and 3,248 followers were taken captive. Already weakened by hunger and disease, thousands of men were forced marched across the Syrian desert to the mountainous region of Anatolia. The survivors were mostly used as forced labour on railway construction and tunnelling work. According to the March 1916 returns taken at Kut before the surrender, the 6th Ammunition Column numbered two officers, 37 British and 96 Indian other ranks, a total of 135 men (see E.W.C. Sandes (Major E.W.C. Sandes M.C., R.E.), In Kut and Captivity: With the Sixth Indian Division, London, Murray, 1919, p.475).

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission database lists the names of 37 British servicemen who served in the 6th Ammunition Column and died as prisoners of war. Most of the men had been scattered among the camps that sprang up around the railway works in half a dozen different places in Anatolia, in both the Amanus and Tuarus Mountains. The majority perished at Baghtche and its associated camps. Among the identified deaths at the Tarsus camp was Harry Norris who died on 24 September 1916. He was not the only man from the 6th Ammunition Column at the Tarsus camp. Gunner 91160/26927, Henry Christopher Lovegrove died three days later, on 27 September 1916. Although recorded as a Gunner in the RFA by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, his entry in the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929, shows Lovegrove was in the 6th Ammunition Column and had died as a prisoner at Tarsus. Gunner Lovegrove was born in Wandsworth and his family lived near Clapham North at the time of the war, and later in Balham. His brother Harold Courtney Lovegrove was also killed in the war. 

The date at which Harry’s parents were informed of their son’s death is unknown. An official report into the treatment of British Prisoners of War in Turkey presented to Parliament in 1918 and printed by HMSO led to newspaper articles that could only have brought great distress to the families of these men. More than 60 per cent of the British troops taken prisoner at Kut were known to have died as prisoners of war. 

The Norris family had moved to 5 Meadow Road near Vauxhall Park during the war and remained there until at least 1930.

Frederick Edward Milnes

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F. E. Milnes
Service no. 917
Private, 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers
Born in Kennington; enlisted in London; lived in Lambeth
Died on 24 June 1918 aged 28
CWGC: “Son of Frederick and Annie Louisa Milnes, of 3 Albert Mansions, South Lambeth Road, London.”
Remembered at Berlin South-Western Cemetery, Germany
In 1922–23 it was decided that the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died all over Germany should be brought together into four permanent cemeteries. Berlin South-Western was one of those chosen and in 1924-25, graves were brought into the cemetery from more than 140 burial grounds in eastern Germany.

Brother of William Alexander Milnes.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick Milnes, 22 and single, was serving as a private with the 12 Royal Lancers in Potchefstroom, Transvaal, South Africa.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 the Milnes family were living at 30 Smeaton Road, Wandsworth. Frederick Milnes senior was probably registered elsewhere on the night of the census, as he does not appear on the listing. Annie Milnes, 37, was born in Easton Square. Her children at the time were:
Frederick Milnes, 12, born in Kennington
William Milnes, 8, born in New Cross
Florrie Milnes, 6, born in Camberwell
John Milnes, 1, born in Southfields

Samuel James

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S. James
Service no. 14197
Private, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 7th Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 10 August 1918, aged 18
Remembered at Tincourt New British Cemetery, Somme, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

When Samuel James joined the Army he gave his next of kin as his father, also called Samuel. However, the Army form has been amended. The elder Samuel has been deleted and “Miss D. A James – sister” has been added – her 65-year-old father had died of a cerebral haemorrage on 19 October 1918, just a few weeks after his son perished in the war.

Eighteen-year-old Samuel James went missing at the Front on 30 June 1918. Later, it turned out that he had sustained a gunshot wound in his chest and been taken prisoner and that he had died on 10 August 1918 in the field hospital at Peronne.

James, who described himself as a decorator’s assistant, had signed up at Lambeth on 6 January 1917 and joined the Training Reserve of the Royal Sussex Regiment, transferring to the regular battalion on his 18th birthday, and then joining the East Kents. Standing only 5 feet 4 inches and weighing 7½ stone, with a 34-inch chest to which he could add 3 inches, his physical development as judged to be only “fair”. James committed only one recorded misdemeanour: being slack when on sentry duty at Colchester on 22 October 1917.

Information from the 1911 census
In 1911 Samuel James was an 11-year-old schoolboy. He lived at 37 Burgoyne Road with his parents and sister. Samuel James, 56, was a bricklayer, born at Ludchurch, Pembroke. His wife, Catherine James, 35, was born in Lambeth. They had 3 children:
Dorothy James, 13, born in Lambeth
Samuel James, 11, born in Lambeth
Catherine James, 3, born in Lambeth

Service records – died as POW (GSW)