Tag: 2nd cousin 3x removed

The Story of David Collins and the Live Bait Squadron

Early Life and Family

David Harry Collins was born at Kingsnorth, near Ashford in Kent, on 25 January 1883. He was the son of David Collins and Susannah Charlotte Foord, and was baptised on 4 March 1883 at St Michael and All Angels, Kingsnorth. His earliest years were spent in the Kentish countryside, although the family later moved towards the growing communities around Ashford. [1]

In the 1891 census David was living at 146 Cudworth Road, Willesborough, aged eight and described as a scholar. The household record places him within a working family environment at a time when compulsory schooling and the expansion of local industries were reshaping the lives of children in Kent. By the age of seventeen he had entered maritime employment, beginning a career that would take him away from the county and into the Royal Navy. [1]

The 1901 census recorded David aboard a vessel at Portland, Dorset, where he was listed among the crew as a Boy 1st Class. This entry provides an important glimpse of his transition from childhood to naval service. It shows a young Kentish man already living within the disciplined, mobile world of the merchant and naval ports, learning the practical routines of life at sea. [1]

No spouse or children are identified in the surviving family report. David’s story is therefore preserved chiefly through his parents, his naval records and the official memorials that commemorate the men lost with HMS Cressy. [1]

From a scholar in Willesborough to a senior sailor aboard an armoured cruiser, David Collins’s life followed the sea at a time of rapid naval change.

Royal Navy Service

David entered military service on 5 January 1900, aged sixteen. His later records identify him as Petty Officer 1st Class, service number 208619, serving in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Cressy. The rank indicates that he had progressed considerably beyond his early status as a Boy 1st Class and had acquired experience and responsibility within the ship’s company. [1]

A petty officer was a senior rating who helped supervise the work, discipline and training of junior sailors. In a large warship, petty officers were essential to the daily functioning of the vessel. They stood between the commissioned officers and the wider company, ensuring that orders were understood and carried out while also maintaining standards in technical, domestic and seamanship duties.

HMS Cressy was a Cressy-class armoured cruiser, constructed at the end of the nineteenth century. The class had been designed for overseas naval service and carried substantial armour, heavy guns and a large crew. By 1914 the ships were no longer at the forefront of naval design, but their size, endurance and weaponry made them suitable for patrol and blockade duties in waters where the Royal Navy needed a visible and persistent presence. [2][3]

David’s medals and service records place him among the professional sailors who formed the working core of the Royal Navy during the transition from peace to total war. The report records him as entitled to the relevant naval war-service recognition, while his service history shows that he had already spent many years at sea before the outbreak of the First World War. [1]

Unit Context at the Time of Death

At the outbreak of war, HMS Cressy was assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron, also known as Cruiser Force C. The squadron’s task was to patrol the southern North Sea, particularly the area known as the Broad Fourteens, and to support the wider naval forces guarding the eastern approaches to the English Channel. Its work helped protect the sea routes carrying the British Expeditionary Force and supplies between Britain and France. [4][5]

The squadron consisted largely of older armoured cruisers, many crewed partly by reservists. Their patrol area was comparatively shallow, and the vessels were expected to maintain a steady presence while watching for German warships attempting to reach the Channel or interfere with British shipping. The ships’ age and vulnerability led some naval observers to refer to the squadron as the “Live Bait Squadron”, a nickname that became tragically prophetic after September 1914. [6][2]

HMS Cressy was not operating in isolation by design. The patrol was intended to be supported by destroyers and submarines associated with the Harwich Force. However, poor weather, mechanical difficulties and operational circumstances meant that the three cruisers—Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy—were alone on the morning of 22 September. Their mission was defensive and protective rather than an attack on a particular enemy port: they were maintaining a patrol intended to deter, observe and intercept. [7]

That role placed David and his shipmates at the meeting point between traditional surface warfare and the emerging submarine age. The cruisers were heavily armed and armoured, but their patrol procedures had not yet fully adapted to the speed, concealment and striking power of modern submarines.

Circumstances of Death

On the morning of 22 September 1914, the three cruisers were patrolling off the Dutch coast when they were sighted by the German submarine U-9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen. U-9 first attacked HMS Aboukir. When Hogue and Cressy stopped or slowed to assist survivors, they presented the submarine with further targets. [2][1]

After the loss of the first two ships, Cressy attempted to engage the submarine and also tried to ram it. U-9 manoeuvred into position and fired torpedoes at close range. A torpedo struck Cressy at approximately 7.25 a.m., followed by a second hit several minutes later. The cruiser capsized and sank in less than half an hour. [8][9][1]

David Harry Collins was killed or died as a direct result of enemy action in the sinking. He was thirty-one years old. The loss of Cressy formed part of a catastrophe in which three British cruisers were sunk by one submarine in roughly ninety minutes. Approximately 560 men were lost aboard Cressy, while 1,459 sailors died across the three vessels; 837 men were rescued by British and neutral vessels. [8]

David Collins died not in a distant ocean battle, but on a routine North Sea patrol that became one of the Royal Navy’s earliest submarine disasters.

Burial and Commemoration

David’s body was not recovered for burial. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, which honours Royal Navy personnel who died at sea and have no known grave. The memorial is especially appropriate for a sailor from Kent: it connects his service with the naval establishments and communities of the Medway and preserves his name within the county’s maritime history. [7][1]

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as Petty Officer 1st Class David Harry Collins, service number 208619, Royal Navy, who died on 22 September 1914 aboard HMS Cressy. His commemoration records ensure that his identity is not absorbed into the much larger casualty total. He was one particular man: the son of David Collins and Susannah Charlotte Foord, born in Kingsnorth and raised in the Willesborough area. [1]

The Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust continues to interpret the loss of Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy as part of the dockyard’s wartime history. The three ships were associated with Chatham before being sent to Harwich as part of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, giving the disaster a direct connection with Kent’s naval heritage. [7]

Legacy

The sinking of HMS Cressy had consequences far beyond the loss of one ship. It demonstrated that a single submarine could destroy several large surface vessels in a short period and forced the Admiralty to reconsider the risks of unsupported cruiser patrols. The attack also influenced later anti-submarine practice, including the importance of escorting vulnerable ships, maintaining movement and treating submerged submarines as a major strategic threat. [4][2]

For David Collins, the historical significance of the action should not obscure the individual story. He had entered naval service as a teenager, progressed to the responsible rank of Petty Officer 1st Class and spent his adult life within the Royal Navy. His career joined the local world of Kent with the global reach of Britain’s maritime forces.

His name on the Chatham Naval Memorial represents the enduring cost of that service. There is no known grave to visit and no surviving account in the report describing his final moments. Yet the combination of census entries, naval records, casualty registers and memorial inscription allows his life to be reconstructed with care. David Harry Collins remains part of both the Collins family history and the story of the Royal Navy’s painful encounter with submarine warfare in the first weeks of the Great War.

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-David-Harry-Collins.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/1deb49f5-f4f4-459d-97e5-f42813f25e3a/Individual-Report-for-David-Harry-Collins.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYE2HR37775&Signature=dHa6Xl%2BHnshfojQPi5eyyANR1cE%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjENv%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIFynzI0O7oF7ezzdEwVjHiGtP6c%2Fwn55JcPeBZCpLR11AiEAk3bEo4zl7HtJ2a4T1AgpNWEUBDylGrCzBzoW%2F3tcTRkq%2FAQIpP%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FARABGgw2OTk3NTMzMDk3MDUiDA%2BFlqdcWHQdKTo6UirQBEp32NKrh4cIc%2FXfB9PkNC9JKwkVf8mHcb9Xe54f79NH%2FnmkPfQay7xVtqFr3m6bdZf1c8cqEj28YemPjlv05GEyj8TEMqmkXR%2FdWWlL2MAA5vaZN%2Fd0LSR2fBUj2R8PsLmuLZEUYiI6KCHDXWSDk36N15mJphnIWlRX1WHDvBM8%2B6nGNdLdPB5otmf71b2ggtpKh6tojMXlqMJ2Ru%2F51gNVIXIdfNIauQDR7%2BV0pnv55wXSorMEPXgY%2FsfnZdxafRNGja9nkYA9Z6yOZgtQzJtS%2BZbtIJcJpd3XWl%2BCypzZ1PS85znrZC%2BuyM8%2B%2BS1GKzgcDKyx6CvqkGF6UyBXuEZkP3pH4HDR7AWD9ugFzmoFIvIhNh1zVmdf7nMdG5FXgEjtWdpK4gvTdyRI%2B7soOVWkndKbgozzqLkhSqjjRmEPqraYrpd9o5H1yLG23mUjUcYCSRFb1As0X3d376wEthNE15DdJxmAn99R6Z%2FSJWo3yp0qPnJq9j8gDyBvvxoUnxW7XEuGI2apDoQWhehrZ62f3Vp%2Bb6Awi5xevE4tpLd9uSNFJb2%2FVKmL8UlHmonwXGGuSZjlsJtStYUpnjY8969YE%2BUNz21CoCUUstVojv%2BOMUTYY3jKHblgqVV2WGpQVrWfOhms2lZrNZQDMqsHKcCQxp1eVaInWns3xO%2F8v0tA1b0vuO09a1xhYL9YazOYVcAwLXN69t%2FA1OjQ9m4LmzREL97N1InrG252ZQyp6KG9FPFKbfpB2aml5H7HuH8nGn%2BidQ5KNh3JOGar7tEAK6kwoLPJ1QY6mAGgXswDx5UFXY4SjCmWQUzIBBQSd0hoYQqxV9UW0ZQdfj8N9N%2BU7muk3CVRG7ds5Ef6A10kj%2FUOCETw%2FYbOQnEG3FsoPZjhSSp2XG8i%2B0IXspjQxw3N8hsdIdkeZNDYP6z1xeaCKRS5mxgERLCn3UR74Q533%2F%2F3iN3oBXVuJkpL%2BbeV%2FbaTQWxvnAA%2Bjxcc1WpOgUEZrPPQGw%3D%3D&Expires=1790075731
[2] HMS Cressy (+1914) | MaSS https://mass.cultureelerfgoed.nl/hms-cressy
[3] Cressy class armoured cruisers (1899) https://naval-encyclopedia.com/ww1/uk/cressy-class-armoured-cruisers.php
[4] HMS Cressy (1899) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cressy_(1899)
[5] 7th Cruiser Squadron – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Cruiser_Squadron
[6] The Live Bait Squadron – Live Bait Squadron https://www.livebaitsqn-soc.info/the-live-bait-squadron/
[7] Three Cruisers – Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust https://thedockyard.co.uk/the-collections/digital-exhibitions/three-cruisers/
[8] 22 September 1914: Remembering HM Coastguard’s … https://hmcoastguard.uk/news/22-september-1914-remembering-hm-coastguards-greatest-loss
[9] Remembering the War at Sea – Part 1 – Wessex Archaeology https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/news/remembering-war-sea-part-1
[10] Search Results | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/search-results/
[11] Find War Dead | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/
[12] Royal Navy, HMS Cressy – First World War Casualties – A Street Near You https://astreetnearyou.org/regiment/10218/Royal-Navy,-HMS-Cressy
[13] Cressy-class cruiser – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cressy-class_cruiser
[14] HMS Cressy Archives – History Hub Ulster https://historyhubulster.co.uk/tag/hms-cressy/
[15] World War One https://fortingall-graveyard.org.uk/world-war-one/
[16] The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent: Ship models https://wargamingmiscellanybackup.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/the-historic-dockyard-chatham-kent-ship-models/

Edwin Alderton: From Tram Driver to Soldier

Lance Corporal Edwin Thomas Alderton was a North Sydney tram driver who served in the 1st Infantry Battalion during World War I. He died from accidental injuries in France on August 28, 1918, at age thirty-two. Alderton’s service reflects the contributions of civilian men during Australia’s final military offensives in the war.

Lance Corporal Edwin Thomas Alderton was a North Sydney tram driver, husband and father who served with the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. He died in France on 28 August 1918, aged thirty-two, following accidental injuries sustained after rejoining his battalion during the final Allied advance of the war. [1][2][3]

From the tram routes of North Sydney to the battlefields of France, Edwin Alderton served Australia during the war’s decisive final campaign.

In memory of Lance Corporal Edwin Thomas Alderton, 6457

Early Life and Family

Edwin Thomas Alderton was born on 4 May 1886 in New South Wales, Australia, his birth being registered in the St Leonards district under registration number 12657. He was the son of Henry Charles Alderton and Ann Alderton, née Hollis, and was baptised in Sydney on 27 June 1886. His early life was therefore rooted in the rapidly expanding northern suburbs of Sydney, an area increasingly connected to the city by ferry, rail and tram services. [1]

By adulthood, Edwin had established himself in North Sydney and worked as a tram driver. Records place him at 43 Jenkins Street between 1913 and 1916, and his occupation was again recorded as tram driver when he enlisted for military service. This was responsible public work: tram drivers operated within the expanding transport networks that linked Sydney’s commercial centre to residential districts on the northern side of the harbour. [1]

In 1912 Edwin married Clarice Una Paterson in New South Wales, the marriage being registered in the St Leonards district. Their known child was Ronald Alan Alderton. When Edwin enlisted, his wife Clarice was recorded as his next of kin, initially at an address care of Mrs F. E. Smeal in Cambridge Street, Willoughby. His wartime service consequently affected a young Sydney family whose household and livelihood depended upon his return. [1]

Enlistment and Embarkation

Edwin enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 10 May 1916 at the age of thirty. He was recorded as married, Church of England, and employed as a tram driver, and was allotted service number 6457. He embarked from Sydney on 7 October 1916 aboard HMAT Ceramic, sailing as part of the 21st Reinforcements for the 1st Infantry Battalion. [1]

Within the AIF system, reinforcement drafts were intended to replace men lost through death, wounds, sickness or transfer. Rather than necessarily serving together as a permanent body, the 21st Reinforcements were trained and dispatched to provide men for the 1st Infantry Battalion as vacancies arose. Once overseas, men could be absorbed into different companies and platoons according to the battalion’s immediate needs, and their eventual wartime experience depended upon the unit to which they were posted at the front. [1]

The 1st Infantry Battalion

The 1st Infantry Battalion was one of the original infantry battalions raised for the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914. Recruited principally in New South Wales, it formed part of the 1st Brigade within the 1st Division and served from the beginning of Australia’s overseas commitment in the war. The battalion fought at Gallipoli in 1915 before transferring to the Western Front, where it took part in the prolonged campaigns in France and Belgium. [4][1]

By the time Edwin reached the battalion, the original pre-war enthusiasm of 1914 had been replaced by the realities of sustained industrial warfare. The battalion had suffered severe losses in successive operations, and the continual arrival of reinforcements from Australia was essential to keep it at fighting strength. Men such as Edwin brought civilian skills, maturity and fresh manpower into an experienced unit whose members had already endured years of active service. [1]

The 1st Battalion’s service in 1918 included the Battle of Amiens, which opened on 8 August and marked the beginning of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive. The battalion continued operations until late September, participating in the advance that broke the former stalemate of the Western Front. Australian forces played a major role in the initial Amiens attack, overcoming fortified German positions, capturing prisoners and guns, and helping establish the momentum that carried the Allied armies eastwards. [5][4]

The 1st Battalion’s reinforcements were not reserves held apart from danger: they were absorbed into an experienced fighting unit during the decisive final months of the war.

1st Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force

Unit Context at Time of Death

Late August 1918 was a period of rapid movement and considerable danger for Australian infantry. Following the success at Amiens, the Australian Corps continued its advance across the Somme battlefield, pressing German forces from positions they had held or reoccupied during earlier phases of the war. The 1st Infantry Battalion remained actively engaged in these operations, while the wider 1st Australian Division was involved in further actions at Lihons and Chuignes during August and September. [6][4][5]

Even away from the moment of a formal assault, the forward zone remained hazardous. Battalions had to move through shell-damaged roads and trenches, establish new positions, bring up supplies and ammunition, recover equipment, and prepare for the next stage of the advance. Artillery fire, abandoned munitions, damaged infrastructure and the hazards of hurried movement across a devastated battlefield could all cause casualties. [4][5]

Edwin’s service record identifies him as a member of the 1st Infantry Battalion at the time of death, while the casualty material records him as a Lance Corporal rather than the Private shown on his embarkation record. This promotion indicates that he had assumed responsibility within his section or platoon, helping supervise fellow soldiers in a battalion operating under the pressure of the final campaign. The surviving evidence does not identify his company or exact role, but his rank shows that he had progressed beyond the status he held when he left Australia in 1916. [3][1]

Circumstances of Death

Lance Corporal Edwin Thomas Alderton died in France on 28 August 1918. His death was recorded as accidental injuries rather than death by enemy action, and the Virtual War Memorial Australia notes that he was accidentally seriously injured after rejoining his battalion on that date. The available summary does not specify the nature of the accident, and it would therefore be inappropriate to claim a particular mechanism or location without consulting his full AIF personnel dossier. [2][1]

His accidental death should nevertheless be understood within the setting of an active military advance. The 1st Battalion was operating in the aftermath of the Battle of Amiens, when units continued to move and prepare for further fighting across terrain heavily damaged by four years of war. Whether his fatal injuries arose from transport, equipment, ammunition, movement through damaged ground or another incident, they occurred while he was on active service with a front-line infantry battalion. [2][3][5][4]

Edwin was thirty-two years old when he died. His loss was felt not only within the 1st Battalion but also by his wife Clarice and their son Ronald in New South Wales. A later Sydney newspaper index entry dated 28 August 1923 suggests that his name remained present in public remembrance in his home city after the war. [1]

Burial and Commemoration

Edwin Alderton was buried in Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, in the Somme region of France, in Plot VII, Row A, Grave 35. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as Lance Corporal 6457 of the Australian Infantry, Australian Imperial Force, 1st Battalion, and confirms his death on 28 August 1918. His burial in this cemetery provided his family with a known and individually marked place of commemoration. [3][1]

Daours lay within the wider medical and logistical zone behind the Somme front, an area used by Allied forces during the campaigns of 1918. The presence of a cemetery extension there reflects the network of treatment, evacuation and burial arrangements that served troops operating in the Amiens and Somme sectors. Edwin’s grave connects his North Sydney family to this wartime landscape in northern France. [3][1]

His service is also preserved in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission register and the Virtual War Memorial Australia, while Find a Grave records his memorial under identification number 56386663. These linked sources allow descendants and researchers to trace the path from his civilian life in Sydney through enlistment, embarkation and front-line service to his final resting place in France. [2][3][1]

Legacy

Edwin Thomas Alderton’s story is that of an Australian civilian whose ordinary working life was interrupted by global war. Born in New South Wales, baptised in Sydney, employed on the North Sydney tramways and living at 43 Jenkins Street, he enlisted at thirty and crossed the world to serve with the AIF in France. His experience reflects the contribution of married working men whose families remained in Australia while they reinforced the battalions fighting on the Western Front. [1]

Within the wider family history, Edwin is recorded as a second cousin three times removed to the researcher. His death did not result from a conventional battlefield wound, but it occurred during a period of active operations with one of Australia’s most experienced infantry battalions. Remembering this distinction helps preserve the full truth of his service: he died through accidental injuries, yet those injuries were sustained while carrying out military duty in the dangerous conditions of the 1918 advance. [2][1]

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Edwin-Thomas-Alderton.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/a4969cf5-37bb-42fa-891a-425514f39e88/Individual-Report-for-Edwin-Thomas-Alderton.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYE4RIL35TQ&Signature=C907p%2BeIVYN0fkmTgWO2cGfo3KE%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEIb%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIE2mWRlcey33BaiHf9pbL4O5tYvNRInB%2Fo2vhvsSHbb%2FAiEAjXCdcFEXBCJIMmrGvVjSHiXL3U1Rmlhh6RK9CqYMzHUq8wQITxABGgw2OTk3NTMzMDk3MDUiDJk7aQNHx9DyVpqxHSrQBAZ8Npx2tcYCvXYlW76FJ1AMkIG0MbR4b1mbz54zQ1CmVpExF0G7NCxOna637zuUNKptGngqHL%2B6se6emqRiydjiLMsJWiUCJDMS99m558iOmyrKkmh%2FA4NG3ogtg13pjaiKkpZbvaXQE7L7wH17%2B1CcuT4CgxOwqHdZnA3yZqf94J0fOF5UxocHkdv4dduVjP389snjgtJNbybfn8kVPTzoCgoZZXcABKY0loz85oiEwPSuTOaw6ADM8h%2BSkmRPgf9PvEAq3YcdbwsHr2zB57dLRyQuD3UmIM5sPgH3XksBKCei9jNCBcbZMrhf%2BLJ7ouU4GshH6RAaj7EoFh%2F%2FdfBS%2B4ykodLFNNbs13hrHuLHOLdwBDR%2FqENX2tdd7%2FQUAStGIcbi06oBqyANrov7cWHCwsILav74z4FDihPD25hWu%2FbEjQ0ILGO2%2BPWMoohGCZH%2FIHoh2sKL8WkeX0biwHefAxv6B%2FY4a0Idm7RUOeuITrgTSxlFJVcnzTYJkf8SCJORCwDPGzyPAbq2OuVW4yWNFSypRByxt%2FSs6g2VifuauCFET3MnOeSX1GcyQZvWhymKov1UaKakQQ2Mhzx600SMl%2B%2Ff4KJ1Kc4EQviB5TqBMRgJBC%2FA4s7woY3iHYskDsyvJbBqDWjjROwzm6AJrPAgi5wqpIItQCFhCq4ER5OSFpHw6VSQwn9noO%2BYHiRXC3PG6Pk2XJJpd7RmhCkuMjwhR7vCqWTUTkGEnPXhg65ANOQPr8ek%2Flx%2BfUj4zNdrH41MVoP7dcksltRpelyB0RgwsZ7G1AY6mAHL0E0HY2FrWTowKAtq6UCrYQJmn4KwvToSIQ5fV7WyciZKBRvAZM11p1SmRqe2RtdmzDTsqLd%2F4VlUUHg17zyF3TT3OcK8FN863Oao7VEoiYTownnvosh6tzGtcc%2F9AA%2F4UAeDEQ0HtPSecd3kib%2Bd3Oy0HKJ0d2EitYLxAFbjCm5T2x21sZvJwrl4PSzZ03%2FjkLW2IU6Pog%3D%3D&Expires=1787926075
[2] ALDERTON, Edwin Thomas – Virtual War Memorial Australia https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/145669
[3] Lance Corporal Edwin Thomas Alderton | War Casualty Details 76703 https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/76703/edwin-thomas-alderton/
[4] 1st Australian Infantry Battalion https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51441
[5] Australians in the Battle of Amiens 8 to 11 August 1918 – Anzac Portal https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/where-australians-served/western-front/hundred-days/battle-of-amiens-1918
[6] The 1st Australian Division in the Great War and its Legacy https://researchcentre.army.gov.au/library/australian-army-journal-aaj/volume-4-number-1/forgotten-first-1st-australian-division-great-war-and-its-legacy
[7] Lance Corporal Edwin Thomas Alderton Australian Infantry, A.I.F. … https://astreetnearyou.org/person/76703/Lance-Corporal-Edwin-Thomas-Alderton
[8] Record of service in the great war 1914-18 https://archive.org/download/recordofservicei00lond/recordofservicei00lond.pdf
[9] 22nd Battalion: 1918 – Following the Twenty-Second https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/22nd-battalion-1918/
[10] Edward C Alderton (1886-1930) – Mémorial Find a Grave https://fr-ca.findagrave.com/memorial/67376566
[11] Somme American Cemetery, Bony, France – Interment.net https://www.interment.net/data/france/bony/somme-american-cemetery/records-a-f.htm
[12] Squadron Quartermaster Serjeant C Alderton | War Casualty Details … https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/305167/c-alderton/
[13] UNITED STATES ARMY https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Documents/WWIIAccounting/united_states_army.html
[14] https://content.myconnectsuite.com/api/documents/7… https://content.myconnectsuite.com/api/documents/79b747183ebb4ffa8461bbf6508ffeae
[15] World War 1 – The first ‘Collie Boys’ killed in action. https://www.colliecardiffrsl.com.au/wars/world-war-1/world-war-1-first-collie-boys-killed-in-action
[16] HCRA Elector List – August 1, 2026 https://www.health.ny.gov/regulations/hcra/elector/elect_a2.htm

The Battle of Mouquet Farm: Remembering Henry Alderton

Henry Herbert Alderton, born in Sydney in 1884, was a clerk who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915. He served as a private in the 13th Battalion and was killed during the Battle of Pozières at Mouquet Farm on 14 August 1916. Alderton is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France.

Henry Herbert Alderton was born at St Leonards, Sydney, New South Wales, on 29 January 1884, the son of Henry Charles Alderton and Ann Hollis. He was baptised in Sydney on 24 February 1884 and spent his early life on the northern side of the harbour, with family addresses later recorded at North Sydney and Blues Point, St Leonards. Before the war he worked as a clerk, an occupation requiring accuracy, organisation, and dependable routine.

At the age of 31, Alderton enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Holsworthy on 9 August 1915. He embarked from Sydney on HMAT A60 Aeneas on 20 December 1915 as Private 4127, a member of the 13th Reinforcements for the 13th Battalion. Single and without children, he named his mother, Mrs A. Alderton of Homewood, French Street, North Sydney, as his next of kin. [1]

A North Sydney clerk, Henry Alderton was lost in the fierce night attack on Mouquet Farm during the Battle of Pozières.

Early Life and Family

Henry Herbert Alderton belonged to a Sydney family whose life was centred on St Leonards and North Sydney. His birth was registered at St Leonards in 1884, and his parents were Henry Charles Alderton and Ann Hollis. He was baptised while still an infant, and the family’s later addresses suggest a life closely associated with the growing northern suburbs of Sydney.

By 1905 Alderton was living in North Sydney, and in 1913 he was recorded at Blues Point, St Leonards. His 1915 address, Homewood, French Street, North Sydney, was also the address given for his mother when he enlisted. The close correspondence between his own address and that of his next of kin indicates that family ties remained important in the years before his departure for war. [1]

Before enlisting, Alderton worked as a clerk. Clerical employment placed him in the expanding commercial and administrative world of early twentieth-century Sydney, rather than in the city’s docks, factories, or rural industries. He was 31 when he joined the AIF, making him older than many of the volunteers who had enlisted in the war’s first months, but still well within the Army’s need for reinforcements after the costly Gallipoli campaign. [1]

Military Service

Alderton enlisted at Holsworthy on 9 August 1915 and was allotted service number 4127. He embarked from Sydney on 20 December 1915 aboard HMAT A60 Aeneas, sailing as part of the 13th Reinforcements for the 13th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. Reinforcements such as Alderton were trained and sent overseas to replace the battalion’s losses and bring it back towards fighting strength. [1]

The 13th Battalion had been raised in New South Wales in September 1914 and formed part of the 4th Brigade, initially commanded by Colonel John Monash. It served at Gallipoli in 1915 before withdrawing to Egypt and moving to France in June 1916. By the time Alderton reached the battalion, it had already endured the hard transition from the Gallipoli peninsula to the vastly different conditions of trench warfare on the Western Front. [2]

As a private, Alderton would have served in a rifle company within the battalion’s infantry structure. His work included moving into and holding trenches, carrying equipment and ammunition, participating in patrols and attacks, and facing the continual danger of artillery, machine-gun fire, sniping, gas, exhaustion, and disease. The simple rank of private should not obscure the importance of such men: infantry battalions depended upon their ability to advance, hold ground, and endure conditions that were frequently beyond ordinary experience.

Unit Context at Time of Death

In August 1916, the 13th Battalion was fighting in the Battle of Pozières, part of the wider Somme offensive. The battle centred on a village and ridge of great tactical importance, because possession of the high ground gave observation over surrounding country and helped determine control of the approaches towards Thiepval. The 13th Battalion’s first major action on the Western Front was at Pozières, where Australian troops encountered relentless German artillery fire and strong defensive positions. [2]

After the fighting for Pozières village and ridge, the Australian advance moved north towards Mouquet Farm, known to many troops as “Mucky Farm” because of the devastated and muddy ground surrounding it. The farm stood on the German second defensive line and had been fortified with trenches, dug-outs, wire, and machine-gun positions. It was a formidable objective, and a succession of attacks between 8 August and early September produced severe casualties. [3][4]

On the night of 13 August, Australian troops attacked Mouquet Farm and the associated German trench system. The official Australian commemoration records that a quarry near the farm was captured and that a company from the 13th Battalion, under Captain Harry Murray, seized part of Fabeck Trench north-east of the farm. The Australians were then outflanked and had to fight their way back. Alderton’s battalion was therefore committed at the centre of a difficult night operation against well-prepared German defences. [5]

He crossed No Man’s Land in the attack on Mouquet Farm, but was never seen again after the fighting began.

Circumstances of Death

Henry Alderton was killed in action in France on 14 August 1916. A statement by Private A. G. Fowler of A Company, 13th Battalion, offers a rare direct insight into his final action. Fowler said that he had been in the same platoon as Alderton and had gone “over the top” at the same time during the attack on Mouquet Farm on the night of 13 August. [1]

According to Fowler, the attacking men had to cross about 200 yards of No Man’s Land to reach the German trenches. They got into the enemy position but were forced to retire. Fowler did not know what had happened to Alderton, adding that if he had reached the German trenches, he might have been taken prisoner, as some Australian troops had been captured that day. This was a contemporaneous uncertainty rather than a confirmed account of captivity; Alderton was later officially recorded as killed in action. [1]

The account conveys the confusion of the battle. Darkness, shellfire, broken ground, closely fought trench combat, and the need to withdraw could easily separate men from their platoons. Alderton’s disappearance amid that fighting was typical of the Somme: many casualties could not be recovered, and some were not identified even when remains were later found. The 13th Battalion suffered heavily in the Mouquet Farm operations, and the 4th Australian Division’s losses in the surrounding period were severe. [4][6]

Burial and Commemoration

Alderton has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France. The memorial bears the names of Australian servicemen who died in France during the First World War and whose graves are unknown. It stands as the formal place of remembrance for men whose bodies were never recovered or could not be identified after the battle. [1]

For his mother, Ann Alderton of North Sydney, the memorial replaced the grave that could not be provided. It recorded the name of a son who had left Sydney as a clerk and returned neither to his home on French Street nor to the life he had known before the war. His service is also preserved by the CWGC casualty record and the Australian military embarkation record, which together retain the essential facts of his civilian and military life. [1]

Legacy

Henry Herbert Alderton’s story follows a path shared by many men of the Australian Imperial Force: a civilian career, enlistment after the war had already revealed its cost, a journey from Sydney to Europe, and death in a battle whose violence was difficult for families at home to comprehend. His life connected North Sydney’s commercial world with the shattered farms and trenches of the Somme.

His role in the 13th Battalion gives his loss a precise military setting. The battalion was not merely present at Pozières; it took part in the attempt to capture and hold German positions around Mouquet Farm, one of the most fiercely defended objectives in the sector. Alderton was among the men who crossed No Man’s Land in that effort, advancing into a position from which his battalion was eventually forced to withdraw.

Remembering Henry Alderton restores the individual behind the name on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial: a son of Henry Charles and Ann Alderton, a North Sydney clerk, a private in the 13th Battalion, and a man lost in the night fighting at Mouquet Farm in August 1916.

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Henry-Herbert-Alderton.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/26ff454e-3717-4cea-bb4c-270c63908e8d/Individual-Report-for-Henry-Herbert-Alderton.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYE3EIMVMLP&Signature=PKyfkJGS1j5S9jy%2BJ%2FIrDSjB8O0%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEO7%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIDICev3anKbQg%2FXs4nNoGSn3h8b7h3ufGlkRj%2FJ81D4cAiEAyIOosv2BM0Wnd7KUGaVoktG46idsLbDFvzwao3JNUWQq%2FAQIt%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FARABGgw2OTk3NTMzMDk3MDUiDI8JocJ7%2FzTivhBLHCrQBOx5wk0Wk5qZZVV91iI7Ya1x%2FfCA3ngcDl%2B5aBF79EfO6xIGRHenC2wPuix6LJkO7kbxK5srbyraUspp1C%2FwOT4YfOPMbQj1d%2BwPEnfkVTdhcbO7Sih0E%2Fm93dIe%2Fnp27Vj8NPmzXRuChdCTHWMOfdBB8LDK0DVtOoJmn%2BYVG3YyuQKX3Jd04Cc02KcJRfuEAFBcEa36%2BygSZ65FmC%2BQqAMZxFN%2FGHbwQahEWMZ8uHJkx6aEjE36SV6XKlSaIp5fbEIDREqCghFoh8DY7pIFGkkUyvoi7wRa67He86SRLxnYUYJVLLKyYBw1nt%2FV%2FsCF04JxrdWfCdxJxb6q1NgS%2FUj8WQr0bHR%2BdfCwlLrsEYkuhukwFJ%2FR7wF78k1vmEga%2B9l%2FKrO3VFo4nFH3yUtMa5N57SVnHuhq%2Bvy23x4G62nqzv0%2FExkhMls3J8D6e3yBSLj3YtbkFDo2KYNDiqqfOMUj5e%2BjhViifIyGMf8bjalTuU2hPgFqhhLKTCopaH15UPTRVYRamX4SoZOfXeQLX559WS8B8CfRjAgH4pnMfa0%2F938%2Fg0Q9keEHLXrURMhLGYYmnCKQK9l9rnKiJrC2gphOjv%2FTOtd3zvR04ceRv2un1kPox%2BYjG8VcUdCriM0JtxcrYFfJ97%2BFNnehj0%2F5miYWZI6ywsvtYgI9awEwe1hr6ds2XU%2FRxf4HNG1ZRhvjOUW%2Fh4cYmrkO0Fw%2B5dLvjJ2wdEVXgdsp%2BACkZtgqR3K%2BvIcH1en0mDzz1CXfarnIjNn9D390fwS7a8jYMuIdGMUws9Hs0wY6mAGUiOMU4aAV1%2BGEcqI8C3o2s76j9L8klqVAHdJ1OFNi0Q20tR9uscJHEEF2c3xWuogCuQFXDiW241Pfuh7nvZK%2FUmhpSsjrh%2Bc6%2Fp36WzeKCiBpv3iIvPbJa2iWzq1rUydYRCqLskDX3Yjd5DiwwaQMqDcx6SzB%2BOiQ%2FU%2BVnCKRNItaz9VVIyfTmgtOCBf%2FNb3TZgTspgC8pQ%3D%3D&Expires=1786457631
[2] 13th Australian Infantry Battalion https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51453
[3] Australian War Memorial https://www.facebook.com/AWMemorial/posts/beginning-110-years-ago-on-8-august-1916-the-battle-for-mouquet-farm-extended-th/1434324148742828/
[4] The battle of the Somme: Mouquet Farm 1916 – Webmatters http://www.webmatters.net/index.php?id=109
[5] Mouquet Farm Battle Exploit Plaque https://www.dva.gov.au/recognition-and-commemoration/memorials/memorials-europe/france/mouquet-farm-battle-exploit-plaque
[6] Pozieres & Mouquet Farm: AIF Divisions https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/pozieres-mouquet-farm-aif-divisions/
[7] coventry and the battle of the somme 14 july 1916 – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/covroots/posts/9452379241531046/
[8] http://airhistory.org.uk/rfc/files/names_WO339pt3.csv http://airhistory.org.uk/rfc/files/names_WO339pt3.csv
[9] First World War cemetery at ARRAS MEMORIAL – view casualties https://astreetnearyou.org/cemetery/82700/ARRAS-MEMORIAL
[10] AIF Divisions: 1916 – Following the Twenty-Second https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/aif-divisions-1916/
[11] Katie M. Julian photos on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/Katie%20M.%20Julian/
[12] Annie Browne photos on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/Annie%20Browne/
[13] Mouquet Farm – The Western Front https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/93125-mouquet-farm/
[14] Mouquet Farm – ‘Mucky Farm’ at The Somme, Pozieres #mouquetfarm https://www.facebook.com/historyinyourhand/videos/mouquet-farm-mucky-farm-at-the-somme-pozieres/1420735169641501/
[15] Gerald Griffin photos on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/Gerald%20Griffin/
[16] Mouquet Farm (World War 1, 8 August 1916 to 5 … https://vwma.org.au/explore/campaigns/103

Norman Henry Hughes: Casualty of the Great War’s Gas Warfare

Private Norman Henry Hughes, 229339, formerly 4496 East Kent Regiment and later serving with the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), died of wounds from gas shell injuries on 22 May 1918 and was buried at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen.

Family report and commemorative casualty listing

Early Life and Family

Norman Henry Hughes was born in the closing months of 1898 at Willesborough, Kent, before being baptised on 5 February 1899 at St Mary the Virgin, Willesborough.[file:122] He was the son of Thomas Henry Hughes and Lucy Annie Cook, and by the 1901 census he was living in Folkestone, where he was recorded as a two-year-old son in the household.[file:122] The family remained in Folkestone, and in the 1911 census Norman was living at 32 Marshall Street, where he was still a scholar.[file:122]

By 1918 the family’s addresses linked him both to Folkestone and to Dover, with the report giving 32 Marshall Street, Folkestone, and 23 Victoria Dwellings, Dover, as places associated with him or his family at the time of his service.[file:122] These addresses place Norman firmly within the east Kent coastal communities that supplied many recruits to the British Army during the Great War.[file:122] The report records no marriage and no children, so his life remained closely tied to his parents’ household and wider family circle.[file:122]

Military Service

Norman enlisted at Canterbury, Kent, in 1918, entering military service during the final and most intense phase of the war on the Western Front.[file:122] His rank was Private, and his principal service number is given as 229339, though the report also records earlier or associated numbers including 201572 in the East Kent Regiment and former number 4496.[file:122] Such multiple numbers were common in First World War service, especially where men transferred between battalions or were renumbered within Territorial and county regiment systems.[file:122]

The family report identifies him as serving with the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), while also noting service with the East Kent Regiment and stating that he was “1st Battalion; posted to 10 Battalion”.[file:122] A commemorative casualty listing from the Dover War Memorial Project gives a more specific combined wording, describing him as “Private, Norman Henry, 229339, 1st Bn, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) posted to 10th Bn, Royal Fusiliers, died of wounds (gas) 22 May 1918”.[web:124] Taken together, these records strongly suggest that Norman’s service involved transfer or attachment between related London Regiment and Royal Fusiliers formations while retaining traces of earlier East Kent Regiment service in the paperwork.[file:122][web:124]

Unit Context at the Time of Death

Although the surviving summary is brief, the evidence indicates that at the time of his fatal wounding Norman was associated with a London Regiment battalion linked to the Royal Fusiliers, and had been posted to a 10th Battalion designation by May 1918.[file:122][web:124] By that stage of the war, infantry battalions on the Western Front were operating under relentless pressure from the German spring offensives launched in March 1918 and from the subsequent defensive and counter-offensive fighting that continued through the spring.[web:124] Men wounded by gas shelling in this period often died not immediately in the trenches but later in casualty clearing stations or base hospitals further to the rear.[web:128][file:122]

Norman’s burial at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, is highly significant in understanding the military context of his death.[file:122] Rouen was one of the principal medical and logistical centres behind the British lines, and St Sever Cemetery Extension became the burial place of thousands of soldiers who died in the city’s hospitals after being evacuated wounded from the front.[web:128][web:133] His grave there therefore fits closely with the report’s statement that he died of wounds caused by gas shells, indicating that he was evacuated from the combat zone but did not recover.[file:122][web:128]

The phrase “died of wounds/Gas shell wounds” in the family report tells us that his death was the result of chemical shellfire rather than an instantly fatal battlefield injury.[file:122] Gas warfare remained a brutal feature of the Western Front in 1918, with mustard gas and other agents causing terrible burns to lungs, skin and eyes, and often leading to prolonged suffering before death.[file:122] In Norman’s case, the move from the front to hospital at Rouen and then burial at St Sever Cemetery Extension reflects the grim medical chain through which many gas casualties passed in the final year of the war.[file:122][web:128]

Norman Henry Hughes was one of the many young infantrymen of 1918 whose war ended not in an identified battlefield grave, but in a base hospital far behind the line after gas shell injuries proved fatal.

Family report and St Sever Cemetery context

Circumstances of Death

Private Norman Henry Hughes died in France on 22 May 1918 at the age of nineteen.[file:122] Both the family report and the commemorative casualty entry agree that he died of wounds resulting from gas shell injuries.[file:122][web:124] This places his death among the many casualties of the attritional fighting of 1918, when poison gas remained an effective and feared weapon even in the last months before Allied victory.[file:122]

Because he was buried at Rouen rather than in a front-line cemetery, it is likely that he survived long enough to be transported away from the battlefield for treatment.[file:122][web:128] St Sever Cemetery Extension was closely associated with the hospitals of Rouen, and burials there usually represent men who died after receiving medical attention rather than those buried near where they fell.[web:128][web:133] In that respect Norman’s death is a reminder that fatal war service often continued beyond the trench itself, through the hospital system that struggled to cope with the scale and severity of modern industrial warfare.[web:128]

Burial and Commemoration

Norman was buried in St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, in grave reference Q. III. N. 17.[file:122] This cemetery extension contains a very large concentration of First World War burials and is especially associated with the medical establishments of Rouen, one of the British Expeditionary Force’s most important rear-area centres.[web:128][web:133] His burial there confirms both the official care taken over his commemoration and the fact that his final days were spent away from home in one of the war’s great hospital cities.[file:122][web:128]

The report also notes his entitlement to the Victory Medal, British War Medal, and Memorial Death Plaque.[file:122] These standard awards marked overseas war service and death in service, and would have been issued to or in memory of his next of kin after the war.[file:122] They formed part of the material culture of remembrance for bereaved families in Kent and across Britain.[file:122]

Legacy

Norman Henry Hughes belongs to that large and poignant group of British soldiers who were scarcely out of school before the war claimed them.[file:122] The movement from childhood in Folkestone to enlistment at Canterbury and death in France in 1918 traces a short life shaped almost entirely by east Kent and then broken by the demands of total war.[file:122] The supplied report identifies him as a second cousin three times removed to the researcher, ensuring that his memory survives not only in official records but within the living framework of family history.[file:122]

Sources and Further Reading

Remembering Walter James Deal: His Service and Sacrifice

–

Private Walter James Deal, 23238, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, died of wounds on 12 May 1918 in France and Flanders.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission and family report

Early Life and Family

Walter James Deal was born about March 1886 in Denton, Kent, his birth registered in the Dover registration district in the March quarter of 1886.[file:42] He was the son of Henry Deal and Emily Goldfinch, and census records show him growing up in Denton Street, first as a five-year-old in 1891 and later as a fifteen-year-old labourer in a garden in 1901.[file:42] These records place him firmly within a working Kentish family rooted in the villages south-east of Canterbury.[file:42]

By 1911 Walter was living in Petham, Kent, where he worked as a gardener and domestic boarder at The Bakery on Petham Street.[file:42] On 26 December 1912 he married Ethel Emma Smith at All Saints, Petham, and the couple had at least one child, Arthur James Deal.[file:42] His pre-war life therefore combined rural labour, marriage and family responsibilities, giving a fuller picture of the man behind the military record.[file:42]

Military Service

Walter enlisted at Caversham, Berkshire, while living at Sonning Common, Berkshire, between 1916 and 1918.[file:42] He served as a Private with service number 23238 in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.[file:42] The family report also links him to medical records held under the National Archives reference MH106/963, showing that he was treated in late 1916 for trench feet, a common and often debilitating condition caused by prolonged exposure to cold and wet conditions in the trenches.[file:42]

His medical note records his admission on 19 December 1916 and transfer to a sick convoy the following day, with the observation that he passed through No. 14 Ambulance Train and the hospital ship Glenart Castle.[file:42] Those records place him within the wider medical evacuation system that supported British forces on the Western Front, and they show that his service was affected by the harsh realities of trench warfare before his final illness or wound.[file:42] Walter qualified for the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the Memorial Death Plaque.[file:42]

2nd Battalion Context at Death

The key unit at the time of Walter’s death was the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, an experienced regular battalion that had begun the war stationed at Aldershot as part of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Division.[file:42][web:46] It mobilised and landed at Boulogne on 14 August 1914, then served continuously on the Western Front through the early battles of the war, including Mons, the Marne, the Aisne and First Ypres.[file:42][web:43][web:46] By 1918 the battalion had become a battle-hardened formation, having already fought in the great offensive and defensive battles of 1918 from St Quentin to the Selle.[file:42][web:43][web:46]

Because Walter’s death was recorded in France and Flanders on 12 May 1918, his battalion’s operational setting matters greatly to understanding his final days.[file:42] The 2nd Battalion’s long service on the Western Front meant it was part of the British Army’s hard-fought response to the German spring offensives, and by the spring of 1918 it was moving through the sequence of battles listed in the family report, including St Quentin, Bapaume, First Arras 1918, Albert, Second Bapaume, Havrincourt, Canal du Nord, Cambrai 1918 and the Selle.[file:42][web:43] The battalion’s later record also notes that it ended the war at Villers Pol, France, confirming its presence in the closing stages of the 1918 campaign.[file:42]

Although the supplied record does not identify the exact action in which Walter was wounded, the combination of his date of death, his French burial, and his battalion’s 1918 operations strongly suggests that he died from wounds received during the intense fighting of that year.[file:42][web:46] The 2nd Battalion’s wartime history shows that it was a front-line regular battalion throughout the conflict, which makes Walter’s service part of the broader story of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry’s sustained infantry campaigning on the Western Front.[file:42][web:43]

Circumstances of Death and Burial

Walter James Deal died on 12 May 1918 in France, with his cause of death recorded as died of wounds.[file:42] He was thirty-two years old, born in Denton, Kent, and living at Sonning Common, Berkshire, when he was taken to France and Flanders with the British Army.[file:42] His father is named in the death notes as Henry Deal of Denton, Canterbury, confirming the family link already established in the earlier civil and census records.[file:42]

He is buried in Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No. 2, Somme, France, in Plot II, Row B, Grave 9.[file:42] Doullens was a major medical and evacuation centre on the Western Front, and by 1918 its cemetery extensions were being used for casualties from the fierce fighting on the Somme and Arras fronts.[web:48][web:51] That setting reinforces the likely sequence of wound, treatment and death that is reflected in Walter’s military and burial records.[file:42][web:48]

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his full identity and burial details, while Find a Grave preserves his memorial under ID 56396944.[file:42] These records ensure that his sacrifice remains marked both in France and in digital remembrance spaces used by family historians and local researchers.[file:42] Walter’s grave is therefore both a family memorial and part of the broader landscape of Commonwealth remembrance on the Somme.[web:51]

Legacy and Family Memory

Walter married into local Kent family life before the war, and his wife Ethel Emma Smith and son Arthur James Deal are named in the family report.[file:42] His story therefore belongs not only to military history but also to the history of a young husband and father drawn from rural labour into the first industrial war of the twentieth century.[file:42] The family report identifies him as a second cousin three times removed to the researcher, showing that his memory still links living descendants and wider family networks.[file:42]

His military experience also illustrates the way ordinary soldiers moved through several stages of the Great War: pre-war rural labour, enlistment in the mid-war period, trench illness, front-line service, wound treatment, and burial in a casualty cemetery near the combat zone.[file:42] The 2nd Battalion’s history supplies the necessary military frame for that story, showing that Walter served within one of the British Army’s most continuously engaged regular battalions.[file:42][web:46] In a local history context, his biography can be used to connect Denton, Petham and Sonning Common with the wider story of the Western Front.[file:42]

Sources and Further Reading