Name
David Southam
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/04/1917
36
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
T4/254561
Army Service Corps
904th Motor Transport Company
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MIKRA MEMORIAL
Greece
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green, All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Croxley Mill, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial, We are not aware of any Loudwater memorial
Pre War
David was born in a cottage at Loudwater on the Chorleywood Road on 11 August 1880 and baptised at Christ Church Chorleywood on 26 September 1880. He was the son of David Southam, a stoker, working in Soles paper mill, who was born in 1842 at Durrants Farm, Croxley Green. David’s mother Elizabeth (nee Ginger) came from Woodcock Hill and was also a paper mill worker. They were married towards the end of 1863 and had 12 children. Their first home was in Batchworth; not later than 1877 they moved to Chorleywood Road, then in about 1886 to 25 Dickinson Square, Croxley Green. In 1911 his father was a Dickinson’s pensioner.
David senior died in 1913, soon after which his mother and two of his siblings moved to 307 New Road. David was a paper cutter at Croxley Mill.
After his death the Army paid his executor, John Warn, £7 6s 7d including a war gratuity of £3. Probate was awarded to John Warn, packer, on 29 October 1917 for his effects in the value of £54 14s 5d.
Recorded as enlisting in Watford.
Wartime Service
Private David Southam died at sea. He was amongst those who drowned when the troopship Arcadian was sunk by a U boat enroute from Salonika to Alexandria. The Arcadian was torpedoed near Milos in the southern Aegaean. The damage was so great that the vessel sank within three minutes. Fortunately, 1,058 were rescued but 277 lost their lives. Southam is remembered on the Mikra memorial in Salonika, Greece.
He was a Private in the Army Service Corps, 904th Mechanical Transport Company.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Chorleywood U3A Our Village in the Great War, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
