Waldemar, or Woldemar Milner. According to ‘Soldiers Died in the Great War’, this recruit was born at sea and before the war lived in the port of Hull, Yorkshire, However, it has not been possible to locate a soldier with these names in either the 1901 or 1911 Census’. His absence from these records is explained by the fact that he was not domiciled in England at the time, but in fact was a Danish sailor from the port of Vejle, on the east of the Jutland Peninsula. His correct name was Valdemar Theodor Milner, and he was born in Denmark on December 14, 1891, to Carl Andreas Milner and Karen Marie Larsen. He married Karen Pouline Behrens, (born 02/04/1891) on September 3, 1913, at Vejle, Vejle Amt (Vejle) Denmark. (Denmark Church Records). They had two children, Paula (born 14/08/1913) and Sonja (born 15/02/1916) (War Pension Ledger). Valdemar, sailed from Hamburg for Buenos Aires, on December 9, 1913, stopping at various ports en route. (Hamburg Ship Passenger List).
Sometime after the war began, Valdemar was in the Yorkshire port of Hull, where he enlisted to the local K.O.Y.L.I. as Private 14037, and when the Barracks at Pontefract became overcrowded, he was another transferred to the 7th Battalion in the Royal Munster Fusiliers as Private 2337.
Valdemar was badly wounded in the fighting up on the Kiretch Tepe Sirt, overlooking Suvla Bay, to hold the ground which the two Munsters battalions had captured, on August 15. He died of those wounds on August 18 and is buried in grave no II.F.106. in East Mudros Military Cemetery. He was twenty-three. The CWGC, noted that Waldemar had been married to Mrs K. P. Milner Nikkelsen, of Losbygade 96, Kolding, Denmark, (about 35 km south of Vejle). The citation on his gravestone was submitted by Mrs K Milner, c/o Mrs Belrens, 27, Songandad, Kolding, Denmark. Mrs Milner would have received Valdemar’s British War Medal and Victory Medal, as well as his War Pension.
Thank You to Gerard Canning [mailto:gerardcanning1@outlook.com] and his work on the Munster Fusiliers, for the above information, sent on 14/02/2021.
