British and German soldiers share a common grave Pic: Hermann Rex
Millions of people died during The First World War, including 700,000 British soldiers, making it one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. While many of them volunteered, some were also conscripted and forced to fight.
To highlight how many died in Lewisham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Croydon, Eastlondonlines has compiled a database for each borough, using information compiled and provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
In total, there are 5441 recorded names from across the four boroughs: 578 came from Lewisham, 2258 from Tower Hamlets, 1147 from Hackney and 1458 from Croydon. Forty people appear in both the Tower Hamlets and Hackney records because they lived somewhere along Hackney Road which is on the border of the two boroughs.
To look through the records, scroll down to the borough you’re interested in. You can then use the search box above the table to search for names, addresses or regiments. You can also use the scroll wheel at the bottom to search through the results. To the far right is additional information that has survived, such as where they were born and where they served.
Hackney
The war didn’t just claim the lives of individual men, it tore entire families apart. In particular, many brothers fought and died, such as John and William Allen, Brett Road, Hackney, who both fell on 2 May 1915 while serving in the Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
Many of them weren’t fortunate enough to serve together. Robert Christopher Ayton served as a Private in the West Yorkshire Regiment and died on 19 December 1914 in France while his younger brother, Sydney Ayton, fell two years later as a Rifleman in Belgium.
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Croydon
A number of men also served in previous conflicts, such as Captain David Barrie, Lynton Road, Croydon, who served in the Egyptian Campaign from 1882-1889 and the Malakand expedition in 1887. He died in 1917 at the age of 53.
There are an incredible number of untold stories inside this record, including Sydney Beaumont, the Headmaster of Oval Road school. He was an Intelligence Officer for the 198th Infantry Bde and most likely died during Operation Michael on 28 March 1918, which marked the start of the German Spring Offensive.
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Lewisham
Above all else, these tables are a reminder that it was primarily the young that were sacrificed. Of the 578 that came from Lewisham, 85 were below the age of 20.
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Tower Hamlets
The youngest person to be claimed by the war was Frederick William Hesterman, a 14-year-old who was born in Poplar before moving to Southampton.
The war also took Isaac Rosenberg, Stepney, a poet who has become famous for his wartime poetry and is one of the many talented men lost to the war. He died on 1 April 1918 during the battle of Arras.
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Unfortunately, these databases do not represent the entirety of those who died during the conflict, as many were buried nameless on the battlefields and others with no known record of where they came from.
Of those we know, many were buried where they were killed. If you look through the table, you will find memorials not only in the United Kingdom but in: Egypt, Turkey, Mozambique and countless other countries.
None of this would be possible without the work of the CWGC. For over 100 years, they have worked to provide graves for the remains of soldiers or memorials for those that could not be found. To this day, they work to maintain their graves and ensure that they will never be forgotten.
If you have an ancestor or know of someone from the boroughs who died during the war but isn’t represented in our database, please leave a comment with as much information as possible or email us at: eastlondonlines@googlemail.com
Follow the link to read more about WW1 in ELL boroughs.
