Walter James Cole was a Kent-born husband and father who served as a corporal in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. Killed in action on 27 October 1917, shortly before his twenty-seventh birthday, he left his wife Ethel and two children. His story connects the coastal communities of Ramsgate and Herne Bay with the heavy artillery war on the Western Front. [1]
Early Life and Family
Walter was born on 16 November 1890 at St Lawrence in Thanet, Kent, the son of Edwin Henry Cole and Alice Mary Kennett. His birth was registered in the Thanet district during the final quarter of that year. He was baptised at St Lawrence on 14 December 1890, less than a month after his birth. [1]
At the census of 5 April 1891, four-month-old Walter lived at 4 Gertrude Terrace, St Lawrence. His father was recorded as an upholsterer, and the household included Alice and three older children: Louisa, William and Alice May. This first glimpse of Walter places him within a working family in the Ramsgate area. [1]
By March 1901, Walter was ten and living at 7 Rodney Street, Gibsons Terrace, Ramsgate, with his father and his twelve-year-old sister Alice. The report’s transcription describes Edwin as a general labourer. It gives a different age and birthplace for him from the 1891 entry, discrepancies that would require checking against the original census images. They do not justify assuming a particular change in the family’s circumstances. [1]
Marriage and Children
Walter married Ethel Jane Butler in the Blean registration district during the final quarter of 1913. The registration establishes the period of their marriage, rather than an exact October wedding date. Their known children were Edwin Walter Cole and Muriel Ethel Rebecca Cole. [1]
When Walter’s wartime commemoration details were compiled, Ethel’s address was 21 Underdown Terrace, Herne Bay. His parents were identified as Edwin and Alice Mary Cole of St Lawrence, Ramsgate. These addresses preserve the two Kent households most directly affected by his death: his parents’ home and that of his wife and children. [1]
The surviving compilation does not establish Walter’s civilian occupation, his enlistment date or when he first went overseas. It is therefore important not to fill those gaps with an assumed trade or service history. What is securely recorded is his eventual rank, service number and battery. [1]
Military Service
Walter served as Corporal 25718 in the 186th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Unlike an infantry battalion, a siege battery operated heavy artillery intended to strike enemy positions beyond the immediate front line. Its effectiveness depended on the coordinated work of gun crews, observers, signallers, ammunition handlers and transport personnel. [1][2]
The 186th Siege Battery went overseas to France in October 1916; the Long, Long Trail gives its arrival date as 24 October. This is the battery’s deployment date, not proof that Walter travelled with its original contingent. The available personal evidence does not establish when he joined it. [1][2]
A battery table compiled from archival records lists the 186th’s armament on going overseas as 9.2-inch howitzers. The same source cautions that many batteries were subsequently re-equipped. Consequently, this identifies its initial overseas equipment, rather than conclusively establishing the weapons it used on the day Walter died. [3]
The family report records the Military Medal among Walter’s awards, alongside the Victory Medal. That is an important indication of recognised gallantry, but no award citation or Gazette entry has been established in the sources consulted here. The action for which he received the distinction should therefore remain unspecified. [1]
Walter belonged to the heavy artillery arm: men whose fire supported the infantry while exposing their own gun positions to enemy retaliation.
Service details and Royal Garrison Artillery context.
The Battery’s Role at the Time of Death
Siege batteries used howitzers to send large high-explosive shells along a steep trajectory. This plunging fire could reach positions protected from flatter-firing weapons. As British artillery methods developed, these batteries increasingly concentrated on destroying or suppressing German artillery, as well as attacking strongpoints, ammunition dumps, roads, railways and other targets behind enemy lines. [2]
Walter’s death fell during the closing stages of the Third Battle of Ypres, commonly associated with Passchendaele. The Second Battle of Passchendaele began on 26 October 1917, the day before he was killed, and continued until 10 November. His death therefore belongs chronologically to this final phase of the Ypres offensive, although that timing alone does not identify his battery’s particular firing task. [1][4]
For artillerymen, the Ypres battlefield imposed severe practical difficulties. An Imperial War Museums photograph from the campaign shows gunners jacking and hauling a gun out of the mud north of Ypres. Heavy artillery support depended not simply on firing weapons, but on keeping equipment serviceable and maintaining access to positions in damaged ground. [5]
The 186th’s general purpose can therefore be explained with confidence: it belonged to the heavy-howitzer organisation supporting operations through destructive and counter-battery fire. Its exact location, higher command and targets on 27 October 1917 have not been established from a contemporary war diary in this research. Assigning Walter to a named gun position or a specific infantry attack would go beyond the evidence. [1][2]
Circumstances of Death
Corporal Walter James Cole was killed in action on 27 October 1917, aged twenty-six. The family report records “France” as his place of death, while he is buried near Ypres in Belgium. These entries should not be silently treated as identical geographical evidence: without an original casualty report or burial record, the precise place where he fell remains uncertain. [1]
No personal account of his final action appears in the supplied material. Although enemy shellfire was an obvious danger to artillery units, there is insufficient evidence to state that a particular shell, bombardment or incident caused his death. The confirmed facts are his date of death, classification as killed in action, rank and service with 186th Siege Battery. [1]
Burial and Commemoration
Walter rests in White House Cemetery, St Jean-les-Ypres, Belgium, in grave II. B. 27. His burial provides a permanent place of remembrance in the landscape associated with the Ypres fighting. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains an individual casualty record in his full name. [1]
According to the Commission’s cemetery history, White House Cemetery began in March 1915 and was used until April 1918 by units holding that part of the line. Its history also includes the concentration of graves from other burial grounds. Walter’s present grave reference alone does not establish whether this was his original burial place. [6]
The family report also cites a pension record for Ethel Jane Cole, preserving evidence of the administrative aftermath of her husband’s death. It does not reproduce an award amount or payment dates, so those details cannot safely be supplied. Behind the official record stood a widow and two children whose family life had been permanently changed. [1]
Legacy and Descendants
Walter’s known family legacy continued through Edwin Walter and Muriel Ethel Rebecca Cole. Their names restore an essential part of his identity: he was not solely a corporal and wartime casualty, but a father whose children lost him while he was still a young man. [1]
His surviving records connect infancy in Gertrude Terrace, childhood in Ramsgate, marriage to Ethel and service with a heavy artillery battery. Read together, they preserve the outline of an individual life within the enormous military organisation of the Western Front. His grave at White House Cemetery and the recorded award of the Military Medal give lasting form to the remembrance of that life and service. [1]
Sources and Further Reading
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Walter James Cole — individual casualty record linked in the family report.
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission: White House Cemetery, St Jean-les-Ypres — cemetery history and location.
- The Long, Long Trail: Siege Batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery — battery deployment and initial armament.
- The Long, Long Trail: The Siege Batteries — operational role and overseas arrival dates.
- National Army Museum: Second Battle of Passchendaele — campaign chronology.
- Herne Bay Historical Records Society: War Memorial Search — local roll-of-honour research resource; Walter’s inclusion has not been independently verified here.
- Imperial War Museums, Lives of the First World War: Walter James Cole — remembrance profile.
- Individual Report for Walter James Cole, supplied family-history compilation — birth, baptism, census, marriage, casualty, burial and pension references.
Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Walter-James-Cole.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/dc5d1ca5-af7d-480a-98e7-e9be4cfa1dbc/Individual-Report-for-Walter-James-Cole.pdf
[2] The Siege Batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery – The … https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-royal-artillery-in-the-first-world-war/the-siege-batteries-of-the-royal-garrison-artillery/
[3] Siege Batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/siege-batteries-of-the-royal-garrison-artillery/
[4] Second Battle of Passchendaele – National Army Museum, London https://ww1.nam.ac.uk/timeline/second-battle-passchendaele/
[5] THE BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE, JULY-NOVEMBER 1917 https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205092584
[6] White House Cemetery, St. Jean-Les-Ypres https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/52400/white-house-cemetery-st-jean-les-ypres/
[7] Military medals, honours and awards, 1812–1969 – Canada.ca https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives/collection/research-help/military-history/military-medals-honours-awards.html
[8] War diary, 10th Canadian Siege Battery : 1917-1919 – Full … https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433043775133
[9] Ancestry.ca – Military Records Search https://www.ancestry.ca/c/military_records_search
[10] RGA war diaries – The Long, Long Trail https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/rga-war-diaries/
[11] Royal Garrison Artillery 186 siege battery – Great War Forum https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/254583-royal-garrison-artillery-186-siege-battery/
[12] War Memorial Search | Herne Bay Historical Records Society https://www.hbhrs.org/war-memorial-search?fb-War=WW1
[13] 186th SIEGE BATT ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY – Great War Forum https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/82712-186th-siege-batt-royal-garrison-artillery/
[14] Valor Search — Free Search of US & Allied Military Records … https://medalsearch.net/
[15] Ellis Wells – Passchendaele archives https://archives.passchendaele.be/en/soldier/3202
[16] Search Millions of Grave Records – Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial
[17] War Memorial Project | Herne Bay Historical Records Society https://www.hbhrs.org/war-memorial-project
[18] 186th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery in the Great … https://wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/rgartillery.php?pid=9573
[19] Siege Batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/82800-siege-batteries-of-the-royal-garrison-artillery/
[20] Tilloy British Cemetery, Tilloy-Les-Mofflaines https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/62600/tilloy-british-cemetery-tilloy-les-mofflaines/
[21] Lance Corporal Henry Hadwin 12088, 6th Bn., Border Regiment https://www.cwgc.org/stories/stories/lance-corporal-henry-hadwin-12088-6th-bn-border-regiment-killed-in-flanders-1917/
[22] Serjeant Frederick Cardy | First World War Story | For Evermore https://www.cwgc.org/stories/stories/serjeant-frederick-cardy/
[23] Private Frederick Charles Webb – Memorials – Veterans Affairs Canada https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/596128
[24] Bedford House Cemetery – Commonwealth War Graves Commission https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/55502/bedford-house-cemetery/
[25] Life story: Walter James Cole | Lives of the First World War https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/887658
[26] White House Cemetery, St Jean les Ypres, Belgium (CWGC) https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/white-house-cemetery.html
[27] Captain Ernest Francis Turton Royal Garrison Artillery. Died … https://astreetnearyou.org/person/455048/Captain-Ernest-Francis-Turton
[28] St. Jean – White House Cemetery https://thebignote.com/2018/05/06/st-jean-white-house-cemetery/
[29] Second Battle of Passchendaele – Field of Mud — PICRYL – PICRYL https://picryl.com/media/second-battle-of-passchendaele-field-of-mud-25ee62
[30] The ‘Battle of Mud’ 100 years later – The Vintage News https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/01/09/battle-of-mud/
[31] The Battle Passchendaele Flashcards | Quizlet https://quizlet.com/553724345/the-battle-passchendaele-flash-cards/