| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Walter was born in Beverley in 1885 to Thomas Hutchinson, a stonemason and Hannah. In the 1911 census, Thomas and Hannah were shown to have had sixteen children, of which ten survived. The family lived in Keldgate, Beverley. Walter was educated at Minstermoorgate Infant School, Minster Boys’ School and later at St. Mary’s Boys’ School. In 1901 aged 16, living in Keldgate, he was employed as a blacksmith’s labourer, but by 1907 he was living in Knaresborough and in 1908 in Middlesbrough, employed as a labourer at Hunters’ Shipyard. In the 1911 census he was shown as living in the home of his sister Mary, her husband, and their eight children, in Garforth, Leeds, where Walter was employed as a colliery fireman.
The Beverley Guardian 9 December 1916 published his photograph stating he was “At the Front” with the East Yorkshire Regiment and that he had served “in the Dardanelles, Egypt and France”. The 6th Battalion was the only East Yorkshire Battalion to go to Gallipoli, as the Pioneer Battalion of the 11th Division. The Division embarked for Gallipoli on 1 Jul 1915, landing at Suvla Bay on 7 Aug where they served until the evacuation of Suvla in Dec 1915. They were transferred to Egypt and took over a section of the Suez Canal defences until Jun 1916 when they were ordered to France to reinforce the Third Army on the Somme where they served in the various battles until the end of the war.
In 1922 Walter married Ethel Horsfield, daughter of William and Ellen Horsfield of Long Lane, Beverley. They were living in Crowle Street, Hull in the 1939 Register, his occupation given as ‘Boiler Fireman (Mill)’. Walter died in Hull in 1956, aged 72, but Ethel lived to the age of 96, dying in Hull in Feb 1991.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |