Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE WALTER REGINALD RIDER 12/1372. Born in Hull, 1894, Walter was known as “Reg”, the son of Walter and Alice Rider of 3 Park Avenue, Haddon Street, Hull. His father died in 1902 and Alice married Charles Penny. Walter served his apprenticeship as a Pork Butcher, and worked for the Hull & Barnsley Railway, Neptune Street, as a ‘Labourer’. Enlisting at Hull City Hall, on 4th January 1915, Walter joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Sportsmen’, 3rd Hull Pals. He was badly wounded in the head on 28th August 1916. He died two days later in 1st Casualty Clearing Station, very probably left on a stretcher as surgeons worked round the clock to deal with the wounded from the ongoing attack on the Somme. Under-resourced and stretched beyond sanity, medical staff were forced to prioritise those they had a chance of saving, literally playing God with the tens of thousands of wounded arriving at all hours of the day and night. Walter is buried in Choques Military Cemetery; he was 22 years old. His grave inscription, reads, “HE SLEEPS IN THE WATCHFUL CARE OF GOD”. His death was reported in the Hull Daily Mail, on 11/09/1916, with his photograph.
