Name
James Bernard Millard Walch
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/09/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 13-15
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin, Hitchin Grammar School War Memorial, Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
He was attending Hitchin Grammar School by the Spring of 1904 in the Upper 4th Form, but left in the Summer of the same year. During both terms he was frequently late.
Wartime Service
On enlistment he served in the Artists Rifles, the 28th City of London Regiment, as a Private with the Regimental Number 1986.
After being commissioned he served with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal West Surreys as a 2nd Lieutenant and arrived in France on the 29th December 1914. He was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Loos. There had been heavy rain in Champagne which made the chalky ground sticky and slithery and there was a heavy mist. The attack by the 7th Division, in which the 2nd Battalion served, was against quarries at Cite St. Elie just north of Hulluch. This was a very strong German position, but the objectives were achieved, albeit with heavy losses. Reserves needed to be brought up immediately to face the massive German counter-attack. Sir John French procrastinated for some hours and, it ultimately cost him his job as Commander of the British Forces - it wasted the efforts and lives of James Walch and so many of his comrades including the Divisional Commander Sir Thompson Capper.
James is remembered on Panel 13-15 of the Loos Memorial to the Missing, in France.
Additional Information
On the St. Saviour's Church War Memorial, he is shown as ‘Walsh’.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
