Name
Philip 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
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Philip appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school, but he must have emigrated at some point as he served with the Canadians. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served, and he was born on November 16th 1889 (although his attestation papers record 1890) to Albert and Mary Ann Walker. In all it would appear that two brothers served and survived - refer to Edward Walker for more family details.
The North Herts Mail of December 14th 1916 reports that Philip had worked as a cleaner at the Hitchin Great Northern Station. After emigrating to Canada in 1911, he initially worked on a boat on which Philip Trussell, the son of the well known Pirton post office man, who had also emigrated, was the engineer. Like a number of other Pirton men, he had settled in New Westminster.
An undated newspaper cutting confirms him as the son of Mr A Walker. The oath was taken in Vancouver on March 15th 1916 and so he was twenty-five when he enlisted. His attestation papers record him as living in New Westminster, a fireman and not married.
The Parish Magazine of June 1917 records him as serving in the Duke of Connaught's Own and wounded. This was probably the same incident reported in the Hertfordshire Express dated 28th April 1917. In this report he is recorded as wounded at Vimy Ridge and in the Queen Mary Military Hospital, Whalley (near Blackburn). He is reported as writing: "Compared with where I came from, it seems like heaven." describing the Canadians attack on Vimy Ridge: "It was a very good Easter egg for Fritz. We all line up in the trench, bayonet fixed and everything ready. Just on the minute the officer said 'Up you go, boys! Give 'em hell.' And surely we did. I never got any further that the first of Fritz's lines when I got it - about four shrapnel wounds on top of the left arm and several more in the left side. I don't know how I came out of it so lucky, It was a mystery. You should have seen the Germans hop it,
The Parish Magazine of October 1918 records him as a casualty, after being gassed, and the North Herts Mail of September 5th 1918 confirms that he was ‘Badly gassed and was now in Napsbury Hospital, St. Albans.’ Apparently, the gassing took place several months before, but ‘he pluckily made light of it. A nurse saw it as serious and he was sent to England.’ He first went to France around Christmas 1916 and was wounded at Vimy Ridge - the battle commonly recognised as giving the Canadians their distinct national identity.
A headstone in St. Mary’s churchyard lists a Philip Walker of the right birth date, so it is possible that Philip returned from Canada, married and remained in Pirton. If so, then he had a wife named Florence and died on January 5th 1946 aged fifty-six.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
