Name
Walter Rowland Hill
1892
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/09/1916
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
1933
Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
1st/4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SHENLEY (ST. BOTOLPH) CHURCHYARD
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not shown on CWGC site (see Biography)
UK & Other Memorials
Shenley Village Memorial, St Albans School Memorial, St Botolph's Church Memorial, Shenleybury (now lost) (*1)
Pre War
Walter Rowland Hill was born in 1893 in St Albans, Hertfordshire, the son of Walter Frederick and Elizabeth Hill and baptised 26 Jun 1892 at St Peter's Church, St Albans. He was one of five children, although one died in infancy.
He was educated at St Albans School and on the 1901 Census the family were living at Rookery Yard Cottages, New Road, Shenley where his father was working as a baker making bread. They remained in New Road, Shenley in 1911 at which time Walter was working as a teacher at a County Council School.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Culham, Oxfordshire and joined the 4th Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry and was promoted to Lance Corporal. He served in France from 29 March 1915.
Walter died of wounds on 13 September 1916 at Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, Hampshire. He is buried in a private grave at Shenley (St Botolph) Churchyard, Herts.
Additional Information
*1 Believed named on the lost memorial.
His father received a war gratuity of £9 and pay owing of £14 4s 5d. No pension records seem to exist.
Brother to Norman Stanley Hill who served with the Gordon Highlanders, died of wounds on 30 September 1917 and is buried in Mendingham Military Cemetery, Belgium.
The inscription on Walter's grave reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY OFWALTER ROWLAND HILL
THE BELOVED SON OF
WALTER FREDERICK AND ELIZABETH HILL WHO DIED SEPT. 13TH 1916 CAMBRIDGE HOSPITAL, ALDERSHOT.
AGED 24 YEARS HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY
Part of the inscription is obscured but is believed to be verse 1& 4 from Evening Prayer.
SAVIOUR, BREATHE AN EVENING BLESSING
ERE REPOSE OUR SPIRITS SEAL;
SIN AND WANT WE COME CONFESSING,
THOU CANST SAVE AND THOU CANST HEAL.
SHOULD SWIFT DEATH THIS NIGHT O'ERTAKE US,
AND OUR COUCH BECOME OUR TOMB,
MAY THE MORN IN HEAVEN AWAKE US,
CLAD IN BRIGHT AND DEATHLESS BLOOM.
Acknowledgments
Taff Williams, Brenda Palmer
Gareth Hughes
