Name
(Fredrick) John Walker
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/05/1915
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
9091
King’s Royal Rifle Corps
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 51 and 53
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green, All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
Pre War
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records John Walker as the son of Rosa Alice Hack of Fernley Cottage, Croxley Green.
At the 1911 census Arthur and Rosa Hack lived on their own at 225 New Road. In 1901 the Hacks, with their two young daughters were living in Ashford, Middlesex. According to All Saints’ Croxley Green magazine of July 1915, John Walker had lived for many years with Mr and Mrs Hack, who regarded him almost as a son. He was born in Great Missenden in 1889 (birth registered in the third quarter in Amersham district). In 1891, aged 1, he was living with his grandparents, Samuel and Emma Ellen Harding. In 1901 he was living in Wormley, Herts aged 10 with a market gardener, Ernest J Draper. In 1911 he was living in New Barracks, Gosport as a Private in the 1st Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
Recorded as enlisting in West Hartlepool.
Wartime Service
Rifleman (Fredrick) John Walker died on 10 May 1915, aged 27.
He served in the 4th Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps and arrived in France on 2 February 1915. He had joined the regiment some years earlier.
In 1915 the Battalion formed part of 80th Brigade, 27th Division and they took part in the second battle of Ypres. The battalion was involved in heavy fighting near the Menin Road in the vicinity of Bellewaerde Wood from 8 to 10 May. The war diary on 10 May records ‘during the fighting of the past few days individual acts of gallantry were very numerous.
As a unit the work of the battalion both officers and men was admirable and many messages of congratulations have been received from higher commanders. The battalion was reduced to about 100 men and only 2 officers. Losses, killed wounded and missing, were 15 officers and 478 other ranks, including John Walker.
Acknowledgments
Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
