BORN NOTTINGHAM, 1883. SON OF WALTER TOWNSEND (1857-1910) & ANN MARIA (MARY) SENESCALL (1861- ), OF SOUTHWELL NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. HE WAS A BAKER, BOARDING AT 89 CUMBERLAND STREET, (1911 CENSUS).
HE MARRIED AT HULL IN 1914. HIS WIFE LOTTIE (REED), LIVED AT 106, SIR JAMES RECKITT AVENUE, GARDEN VILLAGE HULL AND 3, BRECON AVENUE, BRECON STREET, HOLDERNESS ROAD, HULL (CWGC ADDRESS).
HE DIED OF SHELL SHOCK AND CHRONIC CONVULSIONS, ON 17/06/1916, AGED 32. HE IS BURIED AT BEAUVAL COMMUNAL CEMETERY, SOMME, FRANCE. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “IN THE BLOOM OF LIFE THE SAVIOUR CALLED HIM FROM HIS WIFE”.
HIS DEATH & PHOTOGRAPH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, 03/07/1916.
HIS BROTHER, ACTING CORPORAL, ROBERT TOWNSEND, 11739, 8TH LINCOLNSIHRE REGIMENTWAS KILLED ON 25/11/1915.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. SERGEANT WALTER TOWNSEND 11/948. For anyone thinking of waving a Union Flag next August when all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the centenary of the war’s onset fires up, please read this, for Walter’s story more than adequately shows the contempt the British Establishment had for the men who fought and died to sustain it. Walter was born in Nottingham in 1883, the third of nine children to Walter and Mary Townsend. He moved to Hull where he worked as a Baker until war came when he queued up outside City Hall and dutifully enlisted to serve his King and Country. He married Lottie Reed on 19th December 1914, and here the story begins.
The Army refused to accept this was not a marriage of convenience to gain Separation Allowance and initially refused to pay the new Mrs Townsend any money for the absence of her husband. Only after writing to his employers- R. Towell & Sons Wholesale Bread Bakers of Cumberland Street, Hull- who confirmed Walter’s story that the couple had been courting for a number of years and had initially planned to wed at Easter but Lottie had requested they delay until Christmas, and that the wedding had been planned long before the Germans marched in to Belgium. The Army, after several missives, relented and agreed to pay.
Walter was promoted to Sergeant and spent 1915 training at Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon where he was ‘severely reprimanded’ for overstaying his furlough by a day. After serving in Egypt over Christmas 1915, the Pals arrived on the Western Front in March 1916. Trench warfare took its toll. Walter was removed from the line on 8th April with shellshock and appears never to have recovered. He died of ‘Anaemic Convulsions’ on 17th June 1916 at 4th Casualty Clearing Station and is buried at Beauval Communal Cemetery; he was 32 years old. The Army responded by refusing Lottie a pension on the grounds that “the disease…was not contracted on active service” which, they decided, made her ineligible; though they would offer a ‘gratuity’ because his symptoms may have been “aggravated” by life in the trenches.
Walter’s younger brother, Robert, was killed in action on 25th May 1915.
