Name
(Walter) James Welch
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/11/1916
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
23458
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ANCRE BRITISH CEMETERY, BEAUMONT-HAMEL
IV. C. 44.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Kimpton Village Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church, Kimpton
Pre War
Walter James Welch was born in 1897 in Kimpton, the son of Walter and Amy Welch and one of five children, although one had died by 1911.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Ramridge Farm, Kimpton where his father was working as a farm horsekeeper. They remained there in 1911 at which time Walter (junior) was working as a farm boy.
His mother's address on pension records was given as High Road, Kimpton, Welwyn, Herts.
His father died in 1918, aged 47, and his mother remarried in 1921 to Herbert Hobbs. They remained living in Kimpton.
Wartime Service
Walter enlisted in Luton and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, serving with the 4th Battalion and probably arriving in Le Havre on 25 July 1916.
He was killed in action on 13 November 1916 during the Battle of the Ancre, an operation in which the Battalion sustained heavy casualties. He was one of 73 soldiers from the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment who died that day and he is buried in Ancre British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £4 and pay owing of £3 16s 7d. She also received a pension of five shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, www.bedfordregiment.org.uk,
