Name
Walter William Wick
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/06/1917
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
203055
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE
I.S.22
France
UK & Other Memorials
Brent Pelham War Memorial
Pre War
Walter William Wick was the eldest child of David and Mary Ann Wick (nee Read). He was born in Brent Pelham, but baptised in Great Hormead (his father’s birthplace) on 7th December 1890. In the 1891 and 1901 censuses, the family lived at Black Hall farm, Brent Pelham, where David was a horseman. In 1911 the address is given more precisely as Westley Cottages, Black Hall. In 1911, Walter William, by now 21, was employed as a shepherd. In the spring of 1914, he married Elsie M Rogers, with whom he had a son John I, born in the first quarter of 1916.
Wartime Service
Walter William enlisted at Hertford. According to SDITGW, he served with the 8th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment; however the war memorial records service with the 5th Battalion. He was killed in action on 27th June 1917. The CWGC records the deaths of eleven Bedfordshire Regiment soldiers on this date. Nine of these, including Walter William, are buried in the same cemetery (see above), of whom eight belong to the 8th Battalion. The 8th Battalion’s War Diary for this day notes that ‘A’ and ‘D’ companies of the 8th were in the line at Mazingarbe, under the temporary command of officers of other regiments. Walter William’s younger brother James Henry Wick was killed in December of the same year.
Additional Information
The Medal Rolls Index records the award of the British Medal and the Victory Medal. His service records have not survived.
Acknowledgments
Dr Stephen Bratt
