Name
Charles Walker
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
There were several families named Walker in Pirton at the time of the Great War, and some names are common across these families making identification difficult. However, an undated newspaper cutting in the village scrapbook names Corporal Charles Walker and reports that he had two brothers, William and George, who were also serving. Assuming this information is correct, by cross-referencing this with parish records only one possible family is identified. However, for the reason explained below, caution is necessary in case the parish records are incomplete.
From the information available, Charles would seem to be the son of James and Selina (née Goldsmith), and he was baptised on August 5th 1866. This would mean that he would have been about forty-eight at the outbreak of war. This is rather old to have enlisted; the upper age was normally thirty-eight, but could be forty-five if the man had previous army service. For this reason he may not be the man who served and survived. However, it is possible that he lied about his age – unusual, but not unheard of, so his details are provided here.
Baptism and census records list nine children but, by 1911, two had died. They are Ellen (b 1859) who was born before James and Selina’s marriage, she has the Goldsmith surname but james is named as her father on her marriage certificate, Emma (bapt 1862), John (bapt 1864), Charles (b 1866), Anise (bapt 1868), Martha (bapt 1876), William (b 1878), John (b 1880) and George (b 1882). It is believed that both William and George also served and both survived.
The North Herts Mail dated March 15th 1917 suggests that the sons of Mr and Mrs James Walker, Edward, Charles and Bert, were all serving, but the paper also records ‘A Wilshere’ as a brother. The first names do not all seem to be relevant to one family, Walker or Wilshere. Therefore, this information should be treated with caution, as it may be wrongly attributed.
By 1911, the only child still living in the family home was William. Charles is not listed in the Pirton census, so he must have been living or working away.
The cutting mentioned above reports that Charles was acting Serjeant in the Royal Engineers and ‘got his discharge from the Army owing to rheumatic fever.’ He had been in France for six months.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
