Name
Walter Heffer
16/05/1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/04/1917
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
6660
Royal Army Medical Corps
45th Field Amb
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHESHUNT BURIAL GROUND
17. EZ.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
No family inscription on his Headstone.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Cheshunt Memorials,
Not on the Waltham Cross Memorial
Pre War
Walter Newman Heffer was born in Isleworth, Middlesex on the 16th May 1887, son of Walter Heffer a Carpenter & Joiner and Sarah Heffer (nee Smith). The eldest of six children although one died in Infancy.
He was baptised at St. John the Baptist, Isleworth, Middx, on the 7th August 1887.
1891 Census records Walter Jr. aged 3, living with his parents, brothers William (2) and Edgar (3 Weeks old) (Edgar died later that year), in Sydney Street, Cheshunt, Herts.
1901 Census records Walter Jr. aged 13, at school, living with his parents, brothers Willliam (12), Herbert (5), Stanley (2) and sister Jessie (8) at, 9 Sydney Road, Cheshunt, Herts. The family had a boarder James Hughes a Metal Turner.
In 1905 Walter Jr. enlisted at Chatham, Kent, in the Royal Navy for 5 years as an Ordinary Seaman with the service number SS/1163, serving at HMS “Pembroke I” a Royal Navy Shorebase at Chatham, from 25th November 1905 to 11th July 1906, when he received a free discharged. His service record states he was approved for a free discharge, to seek employment to look after his father who had had a leg amputated.
1911 Census records Walter aged 23, single, employed as a General Labourer, living with his Parents, and four siblings at 61 Eleanor Road, Waltham Cross, Herts, the family have a boarder Leonard Arkell a Chartered Accountant.
Walter Jr, married Mary Jane Chowney of Woking, Surrey, on the 7th December 1912, at St. John’s Church, Woking, Surrey. The marriage certificate records Walter Jr. as a soldier, stationed at Aldershot. They went on to have one son Edgar Walter Heffer born in 1913.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war Walter Jr., was a serving soldier with the Royal Army Medical Corps with the service number 6660. He arrived in France on the 13th August 1914.
In 1917, while serving with the 45th Field Ambulance he was wounded in action, he returned to England for treatment at the Royal Military Hospital, Dover, Kent, were he died of his wounds on the 17th April 1917. He is buried in the Cheshunt Burial Grounds, Cheshunt, Herts.
Additional Information
His effects of £11-10s-00d, pay owing and his war gratuity of £15-10s-00d, went to his mother Sarah.
His mother Sarah also received a Pension 7/- a week from the 22nd October 1917, as the guardian of Walter Jr’s, son Edgar Walter Heffer.
His brother Private M2/188678 William Harry Heffer died on the 16th February 1919, in Germany and brother Private 41326 Stanley George Heffer died on the 2nd June 1918, of wounds received in action.
His Royal Navy service record is available at the National Archives at Kew, London and on the Ancestry web site.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
