Name
Walter Foster Christmas
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Bedford Yeomanry
1/1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
David Doorne, who researches the Bedford Yeomanry, informed us that Walter served with them. It was for a short period and he did not serve abroad, as he was discharged from the 1/1st Bedfords Yeomanry as medically unfit on November 2nd 1914. He received his Silver War Badge – a small badge given to those who were discharged as a result of sickness or wounds. It served to prove to others that he had ‘done his bit’.
The Kelly Trade Directories list him in 1926, 1929, 1935 and 1937, initially as a builder and carpenter and then adding portable building manufacturer before, in the last two entries, reverting to carpenter. In all listings he was living in the Old Post Office, Great Green.
Walter married Helena Jane Trussell in Hitchin during 1919, a fact confirmed, along with the date of her death on May 5th 1923, aged forty-one, by a monumental inscription in the churchyard. The marriage was certainly after 1911, but probably before the war.
An interesting article on glove-making in Pirton, first produced in the Pirton Magazine in June 1996. Helena is believed to have been commonly known as Nellie, and seems to have started a glove-making business before the war. The war meant that the demand for gloves accelerated, and the business moved to bigger premises in December 1915. It is not clear whether it remained in her ownership, but she certainly remained in charge, and then later, when she died, Walter took over.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
