Name
Walter Brammer
1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/05/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Fitter
153999
Royal Field Artillery
D Bty. 11th Bde.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GODEWAERSVELDE BRITISH CEMETERY
I. S. 15.
France
Headstone Inscription
NEVER FORGOTTEN
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Walter Brammer was born in 1888 in Kendal, Westmoreland, the son of Walter and Jane Brammer and one of four children. On the 1891 Census the family were living at 12 Old Sound, Kendal, where his father was working as a Boot Rivetter.
They had moved to Leeds, Yorkshire by the 1901 Census and were living at 3 Hawes Terrace where 13 year old Walter was working as an Iron Moulder. They family remained there in 1911 but Walter enlisted as a soldier in 1903 when he was sixteen and on the 1911 Census he is listed as a private with the 18th Battalion, (Queen Mary's Own) Hussars, at Bulford Hut Barracks, Bulford Camp, Salisbury. (Reg. No. 3630).
His father died in March 1916 and his mother in January 1917. They are buried together at Leeds General Cemetery.
He married Jane Sheppard in early 1917 in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead and had two step children, Beryl and Lawrence Sheppard, his wife's children from her previous marriage. She was a widow living at 16 Puller Road, Boxmoor and working at John Dickinson & Co, paper manufacturers.
Wartime Service
Walter was already a serving soldier at the outbreak of war and in 1914 the 18th Hussars were at Tidworth, Wiltshire, their home barracks.
Walter was then a Lance Corporal in the 18th Hussars, and left Southampton on 16 August, bound for France. They saw action during the Retreat from Mons and the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August when they lost 70% of their men and horses, but fought again at the Battle of Marne and the First Battle of Ypres.
Walter's 12 year period of service in the army finished in early 1915, however he was was court martialled in Dover on 15 January for being "absent without leave" and sentenced to 49 days in prison. Once released, however, he re-enlisted and joined the Royal Field Artillery as a Fitter, serving with D Battery, 11th Brigade, fighting in the Battles of St Julien, Aubers and Festubert. He was in action again at the Battle of Mount Sorrel and the Somme in 1916, and fought with the Canadians at Vimy Ridge in October.
In early 1917 he was given home leave and got married in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, but soon returned to the Front.
He was killed in action during the German spring offensive of 1918 and died on 6 May 1918, age 30. He is buried in Godewaersvelde British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His widow, Mrs Jane Brammer, 16 Puller Road, Boxmoor, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: “NEVER FORGOTTEN”. His widow received a war gratuity of £22 and pay owing of £18 7s 2d. She also received a pension of £1 5s 5d a week for herself and the children. His brother George also served and survived the war. N.B. Although Walter would have served in France early in the War, military records do not suggest that he received the 1914 Star or 1914/15 Star.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www,hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com
