Name
William Walker
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Royal Engineers
9th Labour Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Note: See Charles Walker for notes on the identity of this branch of the Walker family.
Cross-referencing an undated newspaper cutting in the village scrapbook with parish and census records, suggests only one possible man of this name who could have served, and he was baptised on March 10th 1878, the son of James and Selina (née Goldsmith). In all it would appear that three brothers served and survived - refer to Charles Walker for more family details.
By 1911 William was thirty-three, still living in the family home in Holwell Road and earning a living as a labourer.
He married before the war and the Parish Magazine of October 1915 congratulates William for enlisting with the comment ‘To the list of names published in the last Magazine is now added that of another married man, William Walker. Why don't more unmarried men come forward?’ He would have been about thirty-seven when he enlisted. The Parish Magazine of July 1916 records him as serving in the 9th Labour Battalion of the Royal Engineers.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
