Ralph Walker

RALPH WALKER

Private 14435, 1st Battalion Scots Guards

Died 6th April 1917 aged 31

Buried in Grove Town Cemetery, Meaulte, France

Husband of Sarah Elizabeth Walker

Lived at 102, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike

Ralph was born in Batley in 1886; he was the youngest son of John Willans Walker and his wife Anna. John Walker was a Rag Merchant and before the war Ralph worked for his father as a Warehouseman. He was a member of Brighton Street Working Men’s Club.

He married Sarah Elizabeth Senior in 1904 and they had three children, John born in 1908, George Herbert born in 1910 and a third who was born after the 1911 census.

Ralph enlisted in October 1915 and went to France in January 1916. In September 1916, the Scots Guards got involved in the Somme Offensive for the first time, taking part in the subsidiary Battle of Flers–Courcelette, which saw the first introduction of the tank. Between March and April 1917 the Regiment was involved in the British pursuit of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. During that period Ralph Walker was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia from which he subsequently died.{PL-136}

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