Name
Walter Gunnis Spurr
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/08/1916
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
16678
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ENGLEBELMER COMMUNAL CEMETERY
I. D. 6.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Stained Glass Window, Hitchin Boys Grammar School, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
Walter was born and resident in Hitchin. He was the second son of George E. and Ethel Mary Spurr (nee Cropper) of 14/15, Market Place, Hitchin. Another address is shown for him as Wymondley Rd, Hitchin.
He was attending Hitchin Grammar School by the Spring of 1904 and was in the Upper 4th Form and left in the Winter Term of 1906 whilst in the Lower 6th Form. He later worked for his father in his department store in the old Market Place in Hitchin. He had volunteered into Kitchener's New Army in Westminster by the 19th September 1914.
Wartime Service
Walter was given the Regimental Number 16678 as a Private in the Bedfordshire Regiment. Later he was appointed Corporal and arrived in France on the 30th August 1915 with the rest of the Battalion.
He was in the 8th Battalion of the Bedfords which was in the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division when killed in action in France. On the 22nd August 1916 the Battalion furnished working parties under Corps Signals with six officers and three hundred men from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm in the vicinity of Beausart. An exploding shell killed him. The casualties for the day were two killed, two wounded and one missing.
He was buried in Plot I, Row D, Grave 6 in the Englebelmer Communal Cemetery in France.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
