2nd Lieutenant
Walter NELSON
Infantry
Died: 13th October 1915 - Age: 45

Commemorated:

1. Memorial:Loos Memorial Loos
2. Book:The (1921) Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918Pg.130
3. Memorial:The (1940) Scroll - WW1 Roll of Honour6D GQS
4. Memorial:Warwickshire Masonic Memorial Erdington
    

Awards & Titles:

 

Family :

Fourth son of George Henry and Helen Augusta Nelson, 38 High Street, Warwick. He was a nephew of Sir Montague Nelson KCMG and was born on Saturday 27 August 1870. Educated at Warwick School and Cambridge University. He enlisted on Wednesday 9 February 1916. He had been the managing director of the firm Nelson, Dale & Company, but he resigned and went to live in France. He was a member of the Warwick Town Council, and for three years he was the Chairman of the Warwick Chamber of Trade.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

Unit / Ship / Est.: 1/6 South Staffordshire Regiment 

August 1914 : in Wolverhampton Part of Staffordshire Brigade in North Midland Division. Moved to Luton area and in November 1914 went on to Bishops Stortford. Landed at Le Havre 3 March 1915. 12 May 1915 : formation became the 137th Brigade, 46th (North Midland) Division. January 1916 : moved to Egypt, returning to France next month.

Action : The Battle of Loos and associated actions 

"The Battle of Loos (25 September to 18 October 1915) was the major battle on the Western Front in 1915, surpassing in every respect all that had gone before in terms of numbers of men and materiel committed to battle. The preliminary bombardment was the most violent to date and the battle was charaterised by the committment of Regular and Territorial battalions on a large scale, in which the Territorials performed just as well as the Regulars. As the battles on the Western Front in 1915 increased in size and violence, so the casualties increased in proportion: Neuve Chapelle 12,000, Aubers Ridge/Festubert 29,000 , Loos 60,000. 1916 was to take the casualty cost to another level. Loos was intended as a minor role in support of French efforts around Arras but circumstances reduced the French effort. It marked the first use of poison gas by the British. Once the initial assualt had failed the battle continued in a series of actions mostly focused on the northern sector around the tactically important Hohenzollern Redoubt."

Detail :

Second-Lieutenant Walter NELSON served with "B" Company, lst/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment. (T.F.). 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade, 46th (North Midland) Division. He was a native of Warwick but was living and working in Paris when war broke out. He joined the French Foreign Legion and served with them, in the trenches, for several months before transferring the British Army. He joined the 1/6th South Staffords in August 1915, while the battalion was serving in the Hill 60 sector near Ypres. He returned to England in late 1915 and received a commission in the British Army.

Walter Nelson was killed at Loos while trying to cut gaps through the barbed wire to allow his platoon to move forward, during the actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt on Wednesday 13 October 1915.
He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France; on the Memorial Screen, All Saints Church, Warwick, and on the Warwick War Memorial.

For his service he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal

Another biography exists on the Warwick War Memorial Website.

Masonic :

TypeLodge Name and No.Province/District :
Mother : Shakespeare No. 284 E.C.Warwickshire

Initiated
Passed
Raised
5th February 1894
13th March 1894
10th April 1894
 

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

Additional Source:

Last Updated: 2019-07-27 09:37:15