Private Alfred Bert Walker

Pte Alfred 'Bert' Walker, 12062, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 10th, 1916. A letter from the Front said the 23-year-old had died while adding dressings to a wounded man while under heavy bombardment.

His home was at 130 Wellington Street, Luton, and he had married Ethel Elizabeth Hewitt, an electric fuse filler from Sheffield, in the early months of 1915. His mother Elizabeth had died in 1898 at the age of 42 and father Alfred, a railwayman, in late 1914 at the age of 63.

Prior to the war Pte Walker was employed at Messrs Hayward Tyler. He was had also been a choirboy and server at St Saviours Church. On joining up in 1914 he received preliminary training at Aldershot and on Salisbury Plain.

In a letter to Mrs Walker, Sgt J. Lawson, another Lutonian serving with the Bedfords, said: "Poor Bert was killed last night whilst busy dressing a wounded man under a heavy bombardment. We had copped it hot for over two days, and I had just told him an hour before that he deserved recommendation for his bravery and devotion to duty. He was here, there and everywhere, dressing the wounded, and he fully deserved at least a DCM."