Name
Walter Lea (poss Lee)
9 June 1872
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/10/1918
46
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
34141
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KIRECHKOI-HORTAKOI MILITARY CEMETERY
390
Greece
Headstone Inscription
THINE, THINE IS STILL THIS WITHER'D HEART TILL WE SHALL MEET AGAIN
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor,
Leverstock Green Village Memorial
Pre War
Walter Lea was born in Green End, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead on 9 June 1872, the son of William and Ann Lea. He was one of twins and baptised with his sister Alice at St John the Evangelist, Boxmoor on 14 July 1872. The twins had six other siblings.
On the 1881 and 1891 Censuses the family were living at Green End, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was a gardener. He started school in February 1877 at Boxmoor school and left in 1883 to follow his father into the domestic gardening trade.
He married Ruth Stranks on 30 September 1893 at St Mary's Watford, Herts and they had a daughter, Olive in 1895. The family returned to Hemel Hempstead in 1898 when Walter started work as a gardener to Edward Mitchell-Innes at his home "Churchill" in Park Road, Boxmoor. Mitchell-Innes was a barrister and King's Counsel and one-time Mayor of Hemel Hempstead. (His son Gilbert Mitchell-Innes was killed in May 1915 and is named on the Town Memorial).
In 1901 Walter and Ruth were living at Park Lane, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead with their children, Olive and Arthur, and Walter was working as a domestic gardener. They had moved to Churchill Cottage, 10 Heath Park Road, Hemel Hempstead by the 1911 Census, where Walter was listed with his three children, Olive, Arthur and Norah, and was working as a domestic gardener. His wife was listed as a visitor at the home of Martena Mitchell-Innes in Hastings, Sussex. (His employer's widowed sister-in-law. )
Wartime Service
Walter was already 42 at the outbreak of war and not required to enlist for service, however he joined the No. 4 Company (Hemel Hempstead) Hertfordshire Volunteer Training Corps as soon as it was formed in 1915. His employer, Edward Mitchell-Innes was invited to be the Commandant. He soon decided that he should volunteer for the regular army and enlisted at Watford, Herts, initially serving with the Norfolk Regiment (reg. no. 20798), later transferring to the Labour Corps (reg. no. 393710). He went to Harwich for basic training and was transferred again to the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, completing his training in the Isle of Wight before being sent overseas.
He spent the next two years in the Balkans as part of 820th Area Employment Company, which carried out support services, such as cook, shoemaker, laundryman. He became ill towards the end of the war, having contracted malaria and dysentery and was admitted to hospital in Salonkia where he died on 24 October 1918, aged 46.
He is buried in the Hirechkoi-Hortakoi Military Cemetery, Salonika, Greece.
Additional Information
His widow, Mrs R Lea, Churchill Cottage, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., ordered his inscription: "THINE, THINE IS STILL THIS WITHER'D HEART TILL WE SHALL MEET AGAIN". She received a war gratuity of £10 and his pay owing of £18 11s 7d was split between her and their three children. She also received a pension of 15 shillings a week from 5 May 1919.
Son Arthur John (known as Jack) also served in the war but survived.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage,org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
