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THESE WERE OUR SONS: Stories from Stockwell War Memorial

by Naomi Lourie Klein. Every name is listed, with biographies for all those identified. The introduction gives an overview and the story of how the memorial was erected.
£3 from every copy sale goes directly to the Friends of Stockwell War Memorial and Gardens
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Charles Parker - family man and engineer
The four Rance brothers
Triple tragedy: the Desaleux brothers
Samuel Levy's wife
Fran
k Mason, 16, the youngest
Cecil Philcox - Military Cross winner
Chris Dartnell - shell shocked
Cecil Philcox - killed in training
Harold J. Hill - a riddle solved
Harry Albert Nixon - syphilis treatment and conduct charges

LINKS
WWI and other resources

CONTACT
bathsheba99 'at' gmail.com

© Naomi Klein

Ernest Girdlestone

This name is on Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9
E. Girdlestone
(Ernest Arthur Girdlestone)
(Girdlestone, Ernest Arthur)
Service no 16374
Private, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, 6th Battalion
Killed in action age 38 on 17 September 1916
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Brixton
CWGC: "Son of the late Owen William and Clara Morten Girdlestone, brother of Mrs. L. Boughey, of 283 Rosendale Road, Herne Hill, London."
Remembered at London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval, France, as well as at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9 and inside St Andrew's Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses
In 1911 Ernest Arthur Girdlestone, 30, was working as a painter's labourer and living with his brother Percy James Girdlestone, 28, a widowed upholsterer, and his son, William Girdlestone, 6, at 188 Icknield Port Road, Birmingham, where they occupied 2 rooms. All were born in Brixton, south-west London.
Twenty years earlier Ernest was living with his parents and siblings at 99 Stockwell Road, where the household included:
Owen Girdlestone, 63, an upholsterer from Halesworth, Suffolk
Clara Girdlestone, 44, from Colchester, Essex
Owen Girdlestone, 16, a tailor's porter, born in Holborn, London
Ernest Girdlestone, 13, born in Holborn, London
Percy Girdlestone, 12, born in Holborn, London, "speech and hearing imperfect"
Clara Girdlestone, 2, born in Lambeth
There is a discrepancy between the 1891 and 1911 censuses in place of birth for Ernest and his siblings. It is possible that, since the death of Owen and Clara Girdlestone, this knowledge was lost.