Name
Walter Henry Croft
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/08/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
7909
Norfolk Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BAGHDAD (NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY
XXI. R. 37.
Iraq
Headstone Inscription
HE DIED THAT WE MIGHT LIVE
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Walter Henry Croft was born in 1889 at Bradford Peverall, Dorset, the son of William and Martha Croft and one of seven children. (N.B. On the 1911 Census as a soldier with the Norfolk Regiment his birth is incorrectly listed as Botley, Hants).
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 12 Myrtle Cottage, Weymouth where his father was working as a Brewer's Drayman. By the 1901 Census they had moved to Coledown, Curdrige, Hants where his father was working as a Coachman Groom.
William's father first came to Bovingdon, Herts before moving to Hemel Hempstead in 1906 where the family lived at 73 Cotterells.
Walter enlisted in the Regular Army in 1909 and on the 1911 Census he was a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment in Belgaum, India and his parents and siblings Alice and William were living at Kemp Cottage, Grove Hill, Hemel Hempstead where his father was working as a Coachman Domestic (for the Elworthy family).
His parents later lived at The Poplars, Prestwood, Great Missenden, Bucks, 13 Redbourne Road, Hemel Hempstead and at 51 Chapel Street, Hemel Hempstead. Their address on CWGC documents is "Long View," Addisson Rd., Salisbury Green, Southampton.
Wartime Service
He was already a serving solder with the 2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment at the outbreak of war and was stationed in Bombay, India, part of the 6th (Poona) Division of the British Indian Army. He had been appointed unpaid Lance Corporal. The Norfolks were mobilised and sent to Mesopotamia (now Iraq, Kuwait, Northern Saudi Arabia and parts of Syria and Turkey).
During 1914 and most of 1915 the Norfolks were fighting against the Ottoman forces with some success but in November the British retreated after the Battle of Ctesiphon, south of Baghdad. Unfortunately the Ottomans followed and surrounded them in the siege of Kut-al-Amara which began on 7 December 1915 and lasted until 29 April 1916 when the British surrendered. Walter had been wounded in February and then became one of the 13,000 men taken prisoner.
Many of the prisoners died during the march to Aleppo and 70% of the British and 50% of the Indian troops died of disease or at the hands of the Ottoman guards.
Walter survived for four months but eventually became ill and died of sickness as a prisoner of war on 31 August 1916, aged 27, at Youbaschi, Mesopotamia. He is buried at Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs W H Croft, Long View, Addisson Road, Salisbury Green, Southampton, ordered his headstone inscription: “HE DIED THAT WE MIGHT LIVE”. His mother received a war gratuity of £11 10s, and pay owing of £40 11s 6d. She also received a pension of 5 shillings a week. Brother to William Alfred Croft also named on the Hemel Hempstead Memorial, who served with the Royal West Kent Regiment and died on 31 July 1917.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
