R. E. Wild
Service no. R/6573
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, “C” Coy. 9th Battalion
Died of wounds on 25 September 1915, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Herbert John and Annie Wild, of 24 Halstead Street, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA
Brother of Herbert William Wild
H. W. Wild
Service no. 4023
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 21st Battalion
Killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 27
CWGC: “Born at Brixton. Son of Herbert John and Annie Wild, of 24, Halstead Street, Brixton; husband of Polly Lily May Wild, of 64, Robsart Street, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Warlencourt British Cemetery, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA
Brother of Reuben Edward Wild (died 25 September 1915)
British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920, British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Herbert John Wild’s attempts to find out what happened to his two dead sons, Herbert William Wild and Reuben Edward Wild, and the whereabouts of their bodies have survived in the files. They are business-like and to the point, but they make difficult reading nonetheless. His sense of frustration with the dearth of information coming from the Army and his grief for his boys bubbles just below the surface.
The four eldest Wild boys, Herbert, John, Reuben and Edward, served in the war. Cicero, aged 8 in 1914, was too young. The first sign of trouble was in September 1915. “Could you give me any information concerning my son who I have not heard from for 3 weeks,” wrote Annie Wild, enquiring about Reuben, in October 1915. The Army, it appears, had not yet told her that her son was missing in action. The letter is annotated “No report on hand.”
The mystery of what happened to soldiers reported as missing or whose effects were not located caused deep distress to the bereaved families. For the most part they could not know or comprehend the conditions their sons were fighting in or imagine the scale of the slaughter; they could not appreciate how, amid the mud and chaos, their sons’ bodies could seem to simply disappear.
The Wild family, however, persisted in trying to find answers. Herbert John Wild wrote pressing for more details on his son Reuben’s fate. Reuben died in the Battle of Loos.
The first letter in the file is from 10 September 1916, nearly a year after Reuben died. “In answer to your letter regarding my son’s death on 25/9/15, will you kindly inform me of how he met his death and also the name of the place ,” he wrote. He was anxious also about proving that his son was dead for the insurance company.
In fact, there was in the file two reports on the circumstances of Reuben’s death. Form B 104-53 (Inside Sheet) includes a transcription of a statement given by Rifleman McMeahon:
“Wild is another chum of mine and he [went] missing 25/9/15. I asked a man called Pte. C. Taylor whose number I forget but he is in C Coy. [Company] 11 Platoon and he told me he saw Pte. Wild wounded in the shoulder in the second line of German trenches at the Railway at Ypres and he asked him to go back with him but he would not. The Capt. called one of them to go back with him so Taylor went on to the third line with the Capt. and left Wild in the trench. I understand they were driven back to the 2nd, line where Pte. Wild was wounded but he has been missing ever since.”
There was another report, from Pte. J. Taylor:
“Wild was a short fair [man] about 19. He had no moustache. I saw him dead in the trench killed by a bomb. There was no time to bury him.”
The files do not record whether this information was passed on to the family. On 3 April 1920, however, after receiving Reuben’s medals, Herbert John Wild, wrote” I had four sons serving in the Great War. Two of them sacrificed their lives and I have never received any good information as to where they were killed or buried.” This letter is very badly damaged and therefore difficult to read. However, I can make out the words “I intend to go to Belgium or France … If you would kindly … the name of the place …son R. Wild was last seen alive I shall be grateful to you. … My other son was killed in the Battle of the Somme 1916 …several times by the Graves Commission but up to now I have not received any.” Herbert’s words indicate that the family remained in ignorance.
The “other son” was Herbert William Wild, who was killed in action on 15 September 1916, nearly a year after Reuben’s death. He was married to Polly Lily May Wild and had a baby daughter, Ivy May Wild, born 6 February 1916. A note in William’s file says that his personal effects were posted in 1917 but in November 1917 his grieving father wrote:
“My daughter in law [Polly] informs me that she has received no effects of her Husband the late Rifleman H. W. Wild … who has been dead 14 months. All she has received is his identification disc. I myself have the official information of where he was buried… If he was buried [illegible] possible to recover his identication disc it must also be possible to recover any other personal effects. I have lost two sons in this war and have two others serving. … I have nothing at all to prove the other son’s death [Reuben] as he was reported missing after the Battle of Loos.”
Additional information – Herbert William Wild
Information from the censuses
In 1911 Herbert William Wild, 22, a shop assistant, and his brother Reuben Edward Wild, 15, an errand boy, lived at 24 Halstead Street, Brixton. Their father, Herbert John Wild, 42, was a gas slot meter collector from Lambeth; their mother, Annie Wild, 42, was from Southwark. There were three other sons: John L. Wild (he is not on the 1911 census return, but he does appear on the 1901), Edward A. Wild, 11, and Cicero C. Wild, 5. The family shared four rooms. The family was found at this address in 1901. Reuben was born in Battersea, his siblings in Lambeth.
H. J. Whittingham
Service no. 76274
Corporal, Tank Corps, 1st Battalion; formerly 3294, Royal Fusiliers
Died of wounds on 28 April 1918, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of John Baker Whittingham and Alice Louisa Whittingham, of 28 Angell Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Marissel French National Cemetery (near Beauvais), Oise, France
Brother of Claude Lionel Whittingham
C. L. Whittingham
Service no. 269729
Private, Hertfordshire Regiment; formerly 3122, Essex Regiment
Born in Southwark; enlisted in Camberwell; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 31 July 1917, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of John B. and Alice Louisa Whittingham, of 28 Angell Road, Stockwell, London. Also served at Gallipoli.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium
Brother of Horace John Baker Whittingham
British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Claude Lionel Whittingham joined the Army as a Private on 10 December 1914. He was attached to the 1st London General Hospital of the Royal Army Medical Corps (the military extension of St. Batholomew’s Hospital). The hospital was stationed at St. Gabriel’s College (photo) on Cormont Road, Camberwell (a requisitioned residential training college for women teachers). The whole of Myatts Fields Park itself was closed to the public until 1921 due to its use as a hospital.
By September 1915 Whittingham was serving on the H.M.H.S “Aquitania,” converted in the previous month to a hospital ship (she started life as a luxury liner, was requisitioned as first a Royal Navy ship, and then became a troop ship). With 4,182 beds the “Aquitania” was the largest of 71 hospital ships used during the First World War. Whittingham served as an orderly on the ship until March 1916, when he joined the war effort in Gallipoli, the scene of Winston Churchill’s doomed attempt to open up a new front in order to confuse and exhaust the enemy. We do not know what Whittingham’s role was in this theatre of war but it is likely that he continued to serve in some capacity on the “Aquitania”. He returned to England on 7 May 1916.
On 19 July 1916, while based at Home, Whittingham requested a transfer to the 3/5th London F.A. Brigade “for the purpose of serving abroad”. It is not clear from the records what happened to this request. In any event, Whittingham was transferred first to the Essex Regiment and, on 9 September, to the Hertfordshires. He was posted to France on 4 November and missing in action on 31 July 1917. Later he was presumed dead.
In civilian life Claude Lionel Whittingham was a grocer’s clerk. When he joined up he was described as 5 feet 6 inches, 9 stone, with a 33 inch chest that he could expand by 2half inches, a fair complexion, with grey eyes and “reddish” hair. By the time he transferred to the Hertfordshires he had grown three inches in height and in chest measurement. His military character was described as “very good”.
After he died, Whittingham’s mother wrote to the Records officer at the Hertfordshire Regiment to query why her son’s RAMC rather than his Hertfordshire service number was set on the medals. The polite but clipped reply was that the number used is the number “your gallant son” held on first disembarkation in a theatre of war.
Information from the censuses
Claude Whittingham was a 13-year-old schoolboy in 1911. He lived with his parents and siblings at 28 Angell Road, Brixton where his father, Manchester-born John Whittingham, 48, was an apartment house keeper. His mother Alice Whittingham 48, was from Bermondsey. There were five siblings: Horace Whittingham, 17, a junior commercial clerk; Ivor Whittingham 15, a cashier; Claude; Rhoda Whittingham 11; Alfred Whittingham, 5. Claude and his younger siblings were born in Newington. There were six boarders, including a producer of plays from Dublin and a pair of music hall artists. Ten years previously, the Whittingham family lived at 63 and 64 Delaune Street, Newington. John Whittingham was described as a “cab proprietor”.
T. H. Wellings
Service no. 29546
Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), 1st Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Camberwell
Died of wounds on 1 October 1918, aged 19
Remembered at Grevillers British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France
Brother of Alfred George Wellings
Information from the 1911 census and British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
In 1903, Thomas Henry Wellings , who was born on 20 May 1899, was enrolled in Walnut Tree Walk school. At the time his family lived at 8 St Olave’s House, a block of social housing in Walnut Tree Walk.
Pension records show that on 20 July 1915 he enlisted in the 21st Battalion of the London Regiment. Thomas gave his age as 19 and two months but he was only 16 and was discharged. The Army was impressed with his good military character. ‘Could have made a good soldier if of the required military age,’ was written in his file.
Wellings’s discharge papers describe him as having a fresh complexion, grey eyes, light brown hair; he was 5ft 6in, with a 36in chest, and under 8st. His physical development was judged to be ‘Fair’. He gave his address as 2 Thorncroft Street, a few streets away from Camellia Street. He must have re-enlisted later.
In 1911 Thomas Wellings, aged 12, lived at 35 Camellia Street, South Lambeth with his widowed 43-year-old mother Elizabeth Martha (née McGoun), who worked as a cardboard box maker in a factory. Another son, George Wellings, 9, also lived there. The family had two rooms. Mrs. Wellings, who had two other children living elsewhere, was from Blackfriars. She did not give place of birth for her sons.
Wellings must have enlisted again when he was able or compelled.
A. G. Wellings
Service no. 10167
Private, Coldstream Guards, 3rd Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Wandsworth
Killed in action on 2 August 1917, aged about 23
Remembered at Artillery Wood Cemetery, Belgium
Brother of Thomas Henry Wellings
The 1901 census shows seven-year-old Alfred George Wellings as one of three children of Alfred Wellings, a 32-year-old horse keeper born in Vauxhall, and Elizabeth Martha (née McGoun), 33, a cardboard box maker from Blackfriars in the City of London, living at 29 Mansion House Street, Kennington.
Alfred was born on 27 January 1894 and attended Walnut Tree Walk School in Kennington. His family lived at 3 Hotspur Street, off Black Price Road.
In 1911 Alfred was working as a page at the Junior Athenaeum Club at 116 Piccadilly, London, a gentleman’s club whose members were MPs and peers, members of the universities, fellows of the learned and scientific Societies, and gentlemen connected with literature, science, and art. Thirty-five servants lived in at the club.
His widowed mother Martha and brothers Thomas and George lived in two rooms at 35 Camellia Street, South Lambeth. Martha was still working as a cardboard box maker.
From Dickens’s Dictionary of London, published 1879, by Charles Dickens, Jr.: The Junior Athenaeum Club “occupies the house once inhabited by the late Duke of Newcastle, and built at extraordinary cost by his father-in-law, the late Mr. Adrian Hope. Members of both Houses of Parliament, members of the universities, fellows of the learned and scientific Societies, and gentlemen connected with literature, science, and art are eligible for election. The members elect by ballot. “No ballot shall be valid unless at least twenty members actually vote. One black ball shall annul ten votes, a tie shall exclude.” Entrance fee, £31 10s.; annual subscription, £10 10s.”