The memorial cross at St Hilda's commemorates 145 men and one woman of Crofton Park who died serving in WW1
There are several local memorials to the dead of WW1; the most impressive is in the grounds of St Hilda’s church, on the corner of Courtrai Road and Brockley Road.
Standing over four metres high, the memorial is in the form of a Celtic cross, made from Cornish granite. The head of the cross is an exact copy of the medieval cross at St Columb in Cornwall.
The base is in the form of two stepped blocks, on the sides of which are inscriptions; the east face of the upper block reads, ‘To the glory of God and in memory of those from this parish who laid down their lives in the Great War. 1914-1918. Their name liveth for evermore.’ The remaining faces of the base blocks contain the names of 145 local men, and -- unusually for a WW1 memorial -- one woman.
When WW1 broke out in the summer of 1914, it was widely viewed as a grand adventure, the sort that children read about in the Boys’ Own Paper.
Some deaths were represented by individual memorials inside churches, and St Hilda’s is no exception: there are plaques inside the church to Leonard Kirby, Reginald Mines, Francis Pascoe, and Arthur Rogers.
As the war went on, the numbers of deaths increased dramatically, and the list on St Hilda’s memorial reflects this. In 1914, three local men were killed; in 1915, fourteen; in 1916, twenty-eight; 1917, thirty-four, and to Armistice Day 1918, forty.
Although the killing ended on November 11th, 1919, the dying continued. Seven more names were added over the next year. Most of those added died of wounds received during the war. Sometimes this could be years later, especially in the case of exposure to gas. Not all died of wounds, however, as several died of disease (particularly influenza) while still in the armed forces.
Memorials to those who had died proliferated after WW1. This was in part due to the huge numbers of casualties and the fact that many of the dead either had no grave or were buried in cemeteries abroad, near to where they had died.
In 1920 the Cenotaph in Whitehall was unveiled, and in June that year, before a great crowd, St Hilda’s Cross was unveiled by General Sir Ian Hamilton, and dedicated by the Bishop of Woolwich.
The cross was designed by F. H. Greenaway and J. E. Newbury, the architects who had designed the church, and it was built W. Richards, of the Brockley Road. It cost £350, the money being raised from the families of the dead and by other residents of Crofton Park.
All those listed lived in Crofton Park. Despite its location, they were not necessarily members of St Hilda’s Anglican congregation. The average age of all those recorded on the cross is 24 years 4 months.
The first death listed is of Sergeant Edward Charles Ashton, who died on 5 October 1914.
The one woman named is Rosabelle Stanley, a nursing sister who died in late 1918. Her family lived on 113 Grierson Road.
The youngest person listed is seventeen-year-old Private Ernest Granville Hodges, killed in action on 23 July 1916 on the Western Front. The oldest, Pioneer Harold Edward England, aged 42, was first reported as wounded and missing, then later as dead, in March 1918. He was also on the Western Front.
Several local families lost more than one son: Private Tom Crafter, who died on 12 Nov 1914, aged 22, and his brother James, a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, who was killed in action in July 1917, aged 23, were part of the Crafter family of 96 Stondon Park.
Arthur Rogers was killed at Gallipoli in August 1915, aged 27. He had lived with his parents at 15, Brockley Grove; moved later to 30 Beecroft Road, and then lived at 40 Ewhurst Road. One of the plaques in the church was placed by his wife Maude. Another son of the Rogers family, Lance Corporal Percy Rogers, died in March 1918, aged 22.
Frederick and Clara Slatter, of 30 Merritt Road, lost their son Private Frederick Slatter who died in June 1916, aged 29; four months later, his brother Private George Henry Slatter aged 23, died while a prisoner of war.
Three brothers from the Griffiths family, who lived at 189 Crofton Park Road, died during the war: Corporal Alfred George Griffiths, 23, was killed in action in April, 1917; his brother, 21-year-old Corporal Ernest Thomas Griffiths, died of wounds two months later, and 20 -year-old Private Sydney Cecil Griffiths died on 2 October 1918.
We are still researching the details of the people on the monument – we have little or no information about ten of them:
Albert H Burley
Alan Cooke
Stanley End
Oswald Hayward
Dennis Knight
Arthur F Morton
George Rush
Frederick J Thompson
Norman W Welton
If you know anything about any of them, or would like to know more about any of the other names on the memorial, please contact us by email: harbro@btinternet.com.
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