123rd Battery. 28th Army Royal Field Artillery. Regimental Number: 62388.
Early life:
Walter’s parents were John Ainge and Mary Ainge née Saunders, who were married on the 25th of October 1890 at the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist in Fladbury, Worcestershire. John was a 21 year old labourer and bachelor, and Mary was a 28 year old spinster and they were both living at Fladbury at that time.
In the 1891 census they were both living at Hill Furze in the Hill and Moor parish. John was 22 and a general labourer and Mary was aged 28 and not working. Hill Furze was a scattering of houses just short of two miles away, to the North of Fladbury.
Their son Walter Harry was born here and his birth was registered at Pershore in the last quarter of the year. He was baptised on the 1st of November 1891 at Fladbury Parish Church.
By 1901 they had moved to Keighley and were living at 4, Elsie Street in the Lawkholme area of town. John was aged 32 and employed as a railway goods porter for the Midland Railway. According to the railway employment records, he was later employed as part of the marshalling staff from 1902 to 1908 on a salary of 21 shillings. Mary was aged 39 at home with Walter aged ten and Alice M. aged three and she had been born at Monmouth in Pontypool in 1898 suggesting they had lived there for a while.
By 1911 Walter was a gunner aged 21, serving with the Royal Field Artillery. He was based at Fulwood Barracks near Preston during the census. His family were living at 10, Duke Street, Beechcliffe in Keighley and John was a 41 year old railway shunter. Mary was aged 49 and at home. They had been married for 20 years and had two children. Alice Maud was now aged 13 and was employed as a dress making apprentice.
Walter must have still be serving in 1912 when he married Violet Dixon at Preston in Lancashire. Their marriage was registered in Preston in the first quarter of the year. In the 1911 census, Violet’s home address was 67, Dallas Street, Preston, with her parents Daniel and Charlotte Dixon and her brother Daniel. Her father was a writing master, her mother a dress maker and her brother a clerk for an accountant. Violet was a bookkeeper for a photographer.
Their son Walter Daniel Ainge was born in 1913, registered at Preston in the second quarter of the year.
They were still living at 67, Dallas Street in Preston and Walter’s name appears in the 1917 Preston Directory as a Clerk with the home address of 67, Dallas Street but we feel this was a reprint of an earlier directory and he was certainly serving abroad in the war at that time. Violet was almost certainly living there with their son Walter during the war.
Walter’s parents John and Mary and his sister Alice were still living at 10, Duke Street in Keighley during the war period as they were still living there in the 1921 census.
War service:
Walter’s Army Service Record does not exist, but from the Keighley Town Clerk’s records we believe Walter was part of 123 Battery within the 28th Brigade. He was mobilized to Dundalk early in August. The Battery was fully mobilised by the 13th of August. They travelled to Belfast and then by sea to Havre on 19th August with the 28th Army Royal Field Artillery, where they disembarked the next day. They moved to Mons where the first action of the war took place and were involved in all the subsequent battles including Marne, Aisne and 1st Ypres. As with all the other men Walter was an ‘Old Contemptible’ and would be entitled to the 1914 Star with the date clap inscribed ‘5th Aug – 22nd Nov 1914.’
He remained with this battery for the whole of his time in the war until he died of wounds on 20th May 1917.
On the 27th of October 1914, he wrote a letter to his father, much of which was published in the local newspaper the next month.
Keighley News. Saturday 7th November 1914, page 5:
A KEIGHLEY ARTILLERYMAN’S NARROW ESCAPE. THE TERRORS OF SHELL FIRE.
Writing to his parents in Keighley from “some where in France,” under date October 27, Gunner W. Henry Ainge (Royal Field Artillery) says:
“I am pleased to say I am alive and kicking, thank God; and as for being downhearted – it is quite an unnecessary question. Far from being downhearted we have, so far as the news leaks out, got the sausage merchants on the run. But they still stick to it, and we get a few shells occasionally, but they make more noise than personal damage. I had narrow squeak the other day, but I pulled through again, though I am sorry to say I lost my horse. She was a little beauty, and I would not have lost her at any price. The best horse I ever had, and everyone admired her, it happened thus:
About a week ago I accompanied, as horseholder, the adjutant of our brigade, to the infantry headquarters, which were right in front of our batteries – about 1,000 yards, I should say, and were in a little paddock at the back of the house, and as I had been out since 3 o’clock in the morning, and it was then 10 o’clock, I thought I would brush my horse down. I had been at the job, say, ten minutes when a few German shells started whistling about. It may seem incredible to you, but we get quite used to the scream of the shell. As a matter of fact you can hear them coming sometimes, and you will hear the remark, “Look out, there’s more sausages coming over,” All of a sudden six shells (shrapnel) burst straight over me, but it was wonderful – I was not touched. I distinctly saw a shower of bullets strike the ground-not actually saw the bullets, but saw the effect, and it was rather hair raising, I can assure you, dad. You may hear of men being cool under fire, but I can tell you he is a good man who can stand shell fire.
Well, one bullet found its billet in the blanket of my saddle; Barely went through, but not quite, Another got my horse in the leg, and the poor beast jumped at least three yards in the air, in pain. I kept her for three days doctoring her up, but it was no use, I had to hand her over to the Veterinary Corps, but whether she will get better I cannot say. I sincerely hope she will, for she was a treasure in the full sense of the word. I managed to get the two horses and myself under cover, the adjutant’s horse not being hit but they soon got tired of firing, in our direction, at any rate. It was terrible while it lasted. But our batteries gave them what for, can tell you.
The artillery received a message of congratulation from the French General on the way we had supported their infantry, and the same night the infantry were charged by the Germans. One of the Yorkshire Light Infantry fellows told me they came on three times. But they did not come a fourth. They got more than they expected; but, then, they are driven to it, so what can you expect?”
War diary:
We did look through the Battery and Brigade war diaries WO-95/1532/1 and WO-95/293/6, 7 and 8 but for the most part they just give details of movements and fire orders so very little specific information on what Walter was doing apart from manning a gun as a gunner and later as a Bombardier.
He was wounded and evacuated to Wimereux where he died of his wounds in an Army hospital there on the 20th of May 1917. He was buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery in a section set aside from the civilian burials.
Remembrance:
Walter is remembered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on his headstone which is at grave 1A in row L of plot II at Wimereux Communal Cemetery. Locally, he is also named in the Borough of Keighley 1914 – 1918 Great War roll of honour in Keighley Library.
He is also named as ‘Ainge, W.H.’, on the Preston roll of honour at the Harris Museum and Library, Market Square, Preston.
Post war:
Violet and Walter junior:
His widow Violet would have received his personal effects. She would also have taken delivery of his medals after the war. These were the 1914 Star with the clasp and rose, plus the British War Medal and Victory Medal and usually arrived in 1920 or 1921. She did apply for the clasp and rose on the 24th of January 1920. Violet would also have received a bronze war memorial plaque and a memorial scroll inscribed with his name, possibly in a similar period to the medals.
She was his next of kin and received his outstanding Army pay which amounted to £12 4s 2d between 29th of September and of November 1917. A war gratuity payment of £16 reflecting his long Army service, was paid to her on the 3rd of January 1920.
Violet also applied for a Dependant’s Pension. She received a one off grant of £3 on 30th June 1917 and received the amount of 18s 9d payable weekly for life and until Walter Daniel’s 16th birthday which was on 13th of April 1929. Violet’s pension amount probably stopped when she remarried, to Robert Forrest who had also served in the war. A further pension card states that Robert applied for the pension for Walter Daniel in 1924, presumably because Violet’s pension stopped. They were still living at 67, Dallas Street in Preston.
Robert and Violet had married at Preston in the second quarter of 1919. In 1921 and 1939 they were still living at 67, Dallas Street in Preston. We did not find definitive death records for either of them.
Walter junior married Mary Alice Skipper in the summer of 1932. In 1939 they were living at 2, Orient Road, Preston. Mary died aged 82 in November 1919 and Walter died aged 81 in October 1994.
John, Mary and Walter’s sister Alice Ainge:
Walter’s mother Mary died aged 58, registered at Keighley in the last quarter of 1920.
In the 1921 census, Walter’s widowed father John was aged 52 and living at 10, Duke Street with his daughter Alice Maud aged 22. He was employed as a foundry labourer for the machine makers Hall and Stells on Dalton Lane in Keighley. Alice was single and on home duties.
Alice married Norman Bradley at St. John’s Church Ingrow in 1922. In 1939 they were living at 20, Birchwood Road in Keighley with their two children Joan aged 16 and John aged 11 plus grandfather John now aged 70. John died at the age of 77 in the first quarter of 1946, having seen out the end of the Second World War.
Norman Bradley died aged 73 in the second quarter of 1970 at Keighley. Alice died aged 85 in the second quarter of 1983 at Keighley.
Information sources:
Worcestershire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1947.
1891 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
Worcestershire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1812-1922.
1901 England Census.
Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956.
1911 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
UK, City and County Directories, 1766 – 1946.
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
1921 Census Of England & Wales.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
1939 England and Wales Register.
