Walter Greenwood

War Service

Walter enlisted at Normanton and assigned to the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
Records indicate that Walter served with the 1/5th, 10th, and finally the 9th Battalion. Unfortunately, Walter’s full service record is not available so we cannot determine when he joined or transferred into each of the battalions of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
Walter and Annie had another child in June 1918, suggesting that Walter was at home in the autumn of 1917. Perhaps he was on leave, or he was waiting for the conscription papers.
Gradually the numbers of men volunteering for service to King and Country was not sufficient to meet the demand required by the military. Faced with this dilemma the government, controversially, introduced conscription in January 1916 targeting single men aged 18 – 41 years. Then, within a few months, conscription also became compulsory for married men.
Records for the actions of Walter’s battalion during the final days of his life are contained in the Battalion War Diaries.
On Sunday 25 August 1918 the battalion was reorganising near the village of La Sars, after being involved in action the previous day. During the action the enemy managed to fight round the flank, thus cutting off all communications from the rear.
Extracts from the Battalion Diary:
“The enemy occupied a very strong position a few yards from our front line and subjected us to very deadly sniping, machine gun fire and bombing.
The casualties were heavy, but every inch of ground was held.
At noon, the enemy retired leaving 130 dead in front of the battalion’s line.”
At 7:00pm, the battalion withdrew and spent the night of 25/26 August in camp near to the village of Le Sars. Walter’s battalion received orders to move to a forward position the following morning. The last dawn Walter would see.
At 6:00am on 26 August the battalion moved forward assembling in the trenches. The objective was to go through the front line troops and take up positions occupied by the enemy.
Entry in the War Diary states:
“After a short break the Battalion advanced over the open under very heavy machine gun fire. There was no advance on our left flank and not only was machine gun fire encountered from the front but also very heavy enfilade fire (along the length of the advancing troops) from the left flank. Casualties were heavy and after crossing the yellow line the advance was held up and cover was taken in shell holes.”
Some men managed to withdraw.
“At dusk the Battalion was mustered and owing to the heavy losses was organised into one company.”
Understandably, after the heavy losses and carnage during this action, entries in the battalion diaries do not include casualty figures for this period. There were four companies in a battalion. At full strength each battalion would have a compliment of around 230 men.
Walter was killed in action on 26 August 1918 while serving with the 9th Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. in France. Only two months after Annie had given birth to their son, also named Walter, on 24 June 1918.
Walter now lies in the A.I.F. (Australian Imperial Force) Burial Ground, 2kms north of the village of Flers. The village was lost during the German advance of March 1918 but then retaken at the end of August by the 10th West Yorkshire and the 6th Dorset Regiment.
There are now 3475 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the A.I.F. cemetery. Of those buried 2263 are unidentified and there are special memorials to 23 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of three casualties buried in a cemetery at Flers whose graves could not be found. The cemetery also contains 170 French and 3 German war graves.

Family Life

Walter was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire on 11 June 1894, the son of Tom Walker and Florence Greenwood.
In April 1911 the family lived in Dalton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Sadly, on 15 June 1911 Walter’s mother died and only a week later Walter’s father died on 22 June 1911.
When or why Walter came to the Altofts area is unknown. However, he met and married Annie Clarke of Skinner’s Row, Altofts on 26 December 1914 and a year later Annie gave birth to their first child, Florence Elsie.