Name
Walter John Gatward
5 May 1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
18/11/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
25962
The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)
10th (R. East Kent and West Kent Yeomanry) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DON COMMUNAL CEMETERY, ANNOEULLIN
I. B. 23.
France
Headstone Inscription
HE SLEEPETH
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Therfield memorials
Pre War
Walter John Gatward was born on 5 May 1899 in Therfield, Royston, Hertfordshire, the son and youngest child of George and Sarah Gatward and one of six children. He was baptised on 8 June 1899 at Therfield.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Hoops Lane, Therfield where his father was working as an agricultural labourer. His father died in 1909 and on the 1911 Census Walter was living with his widowed mother and five siblings at 19 Hoops Lane, Therfield and was the only one still at school.
Wartime Service
He enlisted with the East Kent Regiment (the Buffs) and served with the 10th (Royal East Kent Yeomanry) Battalion.
He died in France on 18 November 1818, aged 19, from influenza while on active service and is buried in Don Communal Cemetery, Annoeullin. France.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £6 18s 10d. She was also awarded a gratuity in lieu of a pension as she had remarried in 1920 to Henry Rayner.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
