Joseph Charles Wheeler

Joseph Charles Wheeler

Service no. 19607

Gunner, Grenadier Guards, King's Coy. 1st Bn.

Killed in action on 20/03/1916, aged 21

CWGC: "Son of Thomas and Alice T. Wheeler, of 12, Westmoreland Place, Pimlico, London. Native of Clapham, London."

Remembered at Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Joseph Wheeler, his mother and two brothers lived at 3 Downers Cottages, Old Town Clapham in the household of his older brother, William Wheeler, who was married with three sons of his own. The house had 5 rooms.

Joseph Wheeler, then 16, was working as a junior grocer's clerk. His younger brother, John Wheeler, 14, was an apprentice instrument maker (probably scientific instruments); the youngest brother, Frederick, 13, was a doctor's errand boy. All three were born in Clapham. Their mother, Alice Wheeler, 55, was born in Bourn, Cambridgeshire.

William Wheeler, head of the household and Joseph's brother, 32, was a stoker on the railway. He was born in Barnsbury, north London. His wife, Adelaide Wheeler, aged 37, was from Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex. They had three sons: Henry Wheeler, 10, Frederick Wheeler, 5, and Frank Wheeler, 3.

Downers Cottages were destroyed during the Blitz.