Private Paul Ackerman

Paul Ackerman was born in Mitcham c.1888 and baptised in the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Mitcham on 5 May 1889. He was the youngest child of Dorset labourer Abraham Ackerman and his Mitcham-born wife, Annie. The couple also had seven older sons - Stephen. Thomas, William, Sam, George, David and James, plus two daughters, Emma and Jane.

In 1891 the family was living at 43 Percy Cottages, Mitcham. Like their father, the older sons were working as labourers and Emma had found work as a laundress. By 1901 Abraham had been widowed and was living with six of his sons, including Paul. The 1911 census shows 22 year old Paul living as a boarder in the household of George Hawkins and his wife, Jessie, at 2 Primrose Cottages, near Mitcham Common. George was a golf keeper, possibly at the nearby Princes Golf Club, founded in 1891. Paul was working as a gravel pit labourer. Gravel extraction was an important industry during this period and the stones were important in the construction industry. Some of the remaining ponds on Mitcham Common were formed as a result of gravel extraction during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

With the outbreak of war, Paul enlisted as a private in the 6th battalion, Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment. Formed at Guildford in August 1914, the battalion was part of the 37th brigade (eastern division). Paul’s unit was sent to France at the beginning of June 1915. He was killed in action on 29th March 1916.

Paul is buried at the Vermelles British Military in the Pas de Calais region of France, where his gravestone reads “Peace to his memory. Ever dear beloved by all who knew him here.” He is also commemorated on the Mitcham war memorial on Lower Green West. After Paul’s death, his personal effects were passed to his brother Stephen, then a resident of Landsell Avenue, Mitcham.