BORN HULL 1895. SON OF ARTHUR POPPLETON (1861-1955) & ADA OLIPHANT HOWARD (HARWOODD) (1869-1920), OF 38, GLASGOW STREET, HULL AND 152, PLANE STREET, HULL. SON OF A SHIP SMITH. HE HAD TWO BROTHERS AND FOUR SISTERS. HIS BROTHER, HAROLD POPPLETON SERVED IN THE EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.
WALTER WAS A STEWARD IN THE MERCHANT NAVY. HE DROWNED ON THE STEAM SHIP, “ZARA”, TORPEDOED ON 13/04/1917, AGED 21.
HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE TOWER HILL NAVAL MEMORIAL, LONDON AND ON THE HULL MERCHANT NAVY ROLL OF HONOUR.
HIS NAME IS ALSO RECORDED ON THE WW1 MEMORIAL, AT ST JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH, NEWINGTON, HULL.
SS Zara, built by Wm. Hamilton & Co., Port Glasgow in 1897 and owned at the time of her loss by Ellerman’s Wilson Line, Ltd., Hull, was a British steamer of 1.331 tons. On April 13th, 1917, Zara, on a voyage from London to Trondhjem with general cargo, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-30 (Franz Grünert), 90 miles W3/4S of Helliso Island. 27 persons were lost. Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?60007
