| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Lance-Corporal Walter Donovan, aged 23, was killed in action 26 Apr 1916 near to Ypres in Belgium. Walter is buried in the Ridge Wood Military Cemetery in Ypres. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals. He is remembered on the Hengate War Memorial, on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster and on St Mary's Church Roll of Honour.
Walter was born Apr 1893 in Crayford, Kent. His father James Donovan, a farm worker was originally from Ireland; his mother Mary Ann Donovan was from Essex. Walter was a labourer. In 1911 after the death of his mother, Walter, his brother, Frank and his father were in the Dartford Union Workhouse and Infirmary in Kent.
Walter joined the Regular Army on 31 Oct 1911, becoming a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment and serving in India until late 1914. The 2nd Battalion was sent to France but Walter was moved to the 8th Battalion. The 8th had been raised in Beverley on 22 Sep 1914 and was part of Lord Kitchener's New Army of volunteers; its lack of experienced men may explain why Walter, a regular NCO, was moved to it. The 8th were based in Beverley until moving south in the middle of 1915 and then going to France to take part in the Battle of Loos in September. In late 1915, and on leave, Walter married Jessie Holdstock at St Mary's Church, Beverley. Jessie, born in 1897, lived at 9 Silvester Lane, Walkergate, Beverley with her parents Matthew and Eliza. Matthew was a livery groom and the family of eight children had in the past lived at Hobson's Yard, off North Bar Within. After her husband's death Jessie remarried twice, to Jack Flintoft in Beverley in 1918 and Henry R Hardy in 1921. She appears not have had any children with Walter.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |