Chelmsford Civic Centre War Memorial:

The South Primrose Hill Boys

Chelmsford Great War Memorial contains names of twenty-two men who themselves or whose immediate families lived in South Primrose Hill, Chelmsford during the war.

This represents a disproportionately high number of fatalities bearing in mind the street, a typical Victorian road half a mile west of Chelmsford Station, only contained 83 households during the war.

One terrace of ten properties has four commemorated men - another of 24 has thirteen commemorated. They include one set of three brothers (Staines) and three sets of two brothers (Brown/Cox-Brown, Harris and Woodyard). Five died after the war - three of whom are not officially recognised by Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Several other men whose families had left South Primrose Hill before the war are also commemorated by the memorial.

The South Primrose Hill Boys were:

Herbert William Cox-Brown; died 03/10/1914; from number 75

Alfred Harris, died 18/12/1915; from number 73

William Francis Dean; died 31/05/1916; from number 45

Alick George Horsnell; died 01/07/1916; from number 6

William Thomas Hoggart; died 03/07/1916; from number 27

Austin Ewart Staines; died 15/07/1916; from number 81

Percy Cardozo Martin; died 17/08/1916; from number 53

William James Whybrow; died 09/10/1916; from number 101

Leonard Raven Berry; died 12/10/1916; from number 39

Charles Edward Brown; died 24/03/1917; from number  75

Ernest Walter Staines; died 26/03/1917; from number 81

Bertie Holgate; died  04/08/1917; from number 41

Henry James Coppen; died 21/03/1918; from number 69

Arthur Monk; died 23/04/1918; from number 107

Thomas Harris; died 12/10/1918; from number 73

Benjamin Albert Woodyard; died 23/10/1918; from number 68

Albert Cyril Harris; died 08/11/1918; from number 67

Joseph Adams Woodyard; died 25/01/1919; from number 74

Harry Walter Berry; died 10/02/1919; from number 103

Arthur Edward Whybrow; died 25/11/1919; from number 47

Henry James Staines; died 24/02/1920; from number 81

Douglas Havelock Newman; died 07/05/1922; from number 99

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