LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS - WWI
Private Stanley Yardley
7th Bn., The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt.)
Pte
Stanley Yardley
8th [7th*] Royal West Surrey Regt.,
Albert
June [July*] 1 1916
Taken, Not Given, Liam Sumption, L&DLHS
* The War Memorial is incorrect:
- Stanley Yardley died not on 1 June 1916. Like so many in his and
other battalions he perished a month later on 1 July 1916 - the first
day of the Somme.
- He was serving with the 7th Bn., not the 8th.
He was born in Battersea, enlisted at Guildford and was 'killed in
action'.¹
The Leatherhead Parish Magazine of February 1916 states that he had
been wounded ². What happened to Stanley Yardley and his comrades of the
7th Battalion, is told on Reginald
Gray's page.³
Sources
1. Soldiers who died in the Great War (Queen's volume): Queen's
Regimental Museum, then at Clandon Park, Surrey
2. Parish Magazine of St Mary & St Nicholas , Leatherhead: February
1916 issue
3. WO95/2214 War Diary of 7th Bn., Queen's: PRO
Further research
YARDLEY,
STANLEY Age: 26
Rank: Private
7th Bn., The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt.)
Date of Death: 1/7/1916
Service No: G/4892
Son of Jessie Yardley, of "Garlands", Leigh Road, Wimbourne, Dorset.
Grave/Memorial Reference: III. E. 24.
Cemetery: COMBLES
COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
His Attestation Record says he was aged 25 on enlistment to the Army
Service Corps Home Regiment, at Guildford on 8th January 1915. His
address was 4 Church St, Leatherhead and he was described as a Canadian
farmer and was single. Some other Leatherhead men who emigrated to
Canada enlisted there and came to the war as part of the Canadian
Expeditionary Force. Stanley came home to enlist.
For some reason he is not listed in the May
1915 issue of Leatherhead Parish Magazine among those serving.
Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
Saturday 30 December 1916
His life
In the 1891 Census his parents William and Jessie were living at 7 St
Phillips Cottages in the parish of Battersea. His full name was Edwin
Stanley Yardley and he was aged 1, born Battersea, London. He was
baptised Edwin Stanley Yardley on 10th August 1890.
In the 1901 Census his parents were living at Woodland Park Cottages,
Stoke d'Abernon - William Yardley age 38, Electrical Engineer, born
Bloomsbury; Jessie Moutell, his wife, age 38, born Pimlico, London about
1864.
Stanley's siblings were: George William, b 1883 Bloomsbury; Ivy b 1886
Deptford; May b 1886 Deptford; Ethel b 1889 Deptford; Ivy b 1892
Cobham; Elsie b 1893 Cobham; Doris Jessie b 1895 Cobham; then Nesta b
Stoke d'Abernon; and Clyde Nita, she was born in 1900, Stoke d'Abernon.
He does not appear in the 1911 Census, possibly because he was in
Canada from where he returned later that year. There are two records of
a Stanley Yardley arriving in England from Canada. As he Attested on 8th
January 1915, the 23 December 1914 arrival date is significant:
Arrival Date: 25 Nov 1911
Name: Stanley Yardley
Birth Date: abt 1889
Age: 22
Port of Departure: Montréal, Québec, Canada
Port of Arrival: Liverpool, England
Ports of Voyage: Montreal
Ship Name: Empress of Ireland
Shipping line: Allan Line |
Arrival Date: 23 Dec 1914
Name: Stanley Yardley
Birth Date: abt 1889
Age: 25
Port of Departure: St John, New Brunswick, Canada
Port of Arrival: Liverpool, England
Ship Name: Missanabie
Shipping line: Canadian Pacific Line |
His father, William Yardley, died on 9th December 1918 (registered Q3
Epsom) at the age of 54 and is buried in the churchyard of Leatherhead
Parish Church, section B grave 261. Stanley is commemorated on a
kerbstone at his father's grave:
ALSO OF STANLEY YARDLEY, KILLED ON THE SOMME JULY 1ST 1916 AGED 26 YEARS
In Leatherhead in the Great War Lorraine Spindler writes of
Stanley's father:
William Yardley was one of the earliest
members of the Leatherhead Volunteer Training Corps. He was an
electrical contractor and lived at 4 Church Street. In the 1911 Census
he and his wife Jessie had lost two children by 1911. William and
Jessie's eldest son Stanley Yardley signed up to the Queens (Royal West
Surrey) Regiment at Guildford on 22nd of February 1915. This was
around the same time as his father was doing his bit for the home front
by joining the VTC and guarding the local railway lines and bridges.
Stanley was killed on the First Day of the Somme, 1 July 1916.
William died suddenly on 9 December 1918
aged aged only 54, the newspapers reporting a ‘short illness’. His VTC
colleagues provided a firing party in his honour at his funeral in
December. He is buried in the Parish churchyard and Stanley is
remembered on the headstone.
After WW1
From the Electoral Registers in 1918 his parents had been living at 4
Church Street, Leatherhead. His mother Jessie remained there after his
father died that year, moving by 1920 to 15 Church Walk, Leatherhead.
The CWGC records Jessie's address as "Garlands", Leigh Road,
Wimbo[u]rne, Dorset. That is where she would have been living when
corresponding with them after the war about Stanley's headstone.
As Jessie was at 15 Church Walk until at least 1926 the Wimborne
address is a bit of a mystery. By at least the mid 1930s she was with
her daughter Clyde and (possibly) Ethel at 58 Harcourt Avenue, Sidcup,
Kent. It is not known if she she was still there when Clyde died in
1939.
Stanley Yardley is also remembered on these memorials
Leatherhead Town Memorial
Leatherhead RBL Roll of
Honour, Leatherhead Parish Church
Ladies War Shrine, Leatherhead
Parish Church
Church Lads Brigade Memorial
Tryptich, All Saints Leatherhead
Links
Map
showing Albert and to the east of it, Combles
The
Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment
the website editor would like to add
further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of him, of his grave and of any recollections within
his family