Walter Cornelius Hopkins was born in the summer of 1884 in Chelsea, West London the eldest child of Eli Hopkins and Louisa Hambidge. The family lived at Pembroke Road, Chelsea when Walter was born, and his father Eli was working as a ‘Stationary Engine Driver’. Walter had seven siblings; Eleanor Mary Sarah, Emily Sarah, Arthur, William Eli, Stephen Henry, Edith Alexandra and Violet Ethel May. Both Eleanor and Arthur died young. Walter’s father William served as a Corporal with the Royal Army Service Corps during the conflict and survived the War.

In 1891 the family of five lived in two rooms at 49 Pembroke Road sharing the house with another family of five also living in two rooms. Eli’s job meant that he most likely worked in a factory, mill or pumping station and was responsible for operating or ‘driving’ a static engine such as a steam pump or turbine.

By 1901 the family had moved to Watford via Willesden and Hoddesdon and lived on Brightwell Road a couple of streets away from present day Vicarage Road, home of Watford F.C.. Eli was working as a ‘Steam Roller’ Engine Driver whilst sixteen-year-old Walter was a ‘Flagman’ for a Steam Roller, no doubt working with his father. Walter and Eli would have been two thirds of the three-man crew required to operate a steam roller. Walter’s job entailed warning the public of the approaching locomotive and ensuring that the machine could negotiate the roads safely whilst not exceeding the stipulated speed limit of 12 miles per hour.

Around this time Walter met Gertrude (Gerty) Allum from Boxmoor near Hemel Hempstead. They were married on the 10th June 1905 and by the outbreak of war, Walter and Gerty had two children; Walter James born in 1907 and Dorothy May born in 1914. The family lived at 131 Marlowes in Hemel Hempstead. Walter by this time was working as an Engine Driver (Stoker) although his employer is not known.

Following the outbreak of war, Walter attested at Watford on the 30th November 1914 and enlisted as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers. On enlistment he was 30 years old and was described as five feet seven and three quarter inches tall, weighing nine stone and his physical development was ‘Very Good’. His civilian job meant he was also considered a skilled man in the army and passed as an Engine Driver before being was transferred to 73rd Field Company, R.E. on the 10th December 1914.

When the expansion of the army was sanctioned in August 1914, it required four Armies each of six Divisions to have two Field Companies each; that is, forty-eight new Field Companies. 73rd Field Company were part of K2 (Kitchener’s New Army) and allocated to the 15th (Scottish) Division.

Walter was sent to France on the 8th July 1915, entraining at Swindon at 4 p.m. before sailing from Southampton at twelve noon the following day aboard the “SS Chyebassa”. He disembarked at Le Havre on 10th July and until the end of August worked around the Arras area in trench and fortification activities. In September the 73rd marched north to Mazingarbe to support preparations for the assault at Loos.

On the 25th and 26th September Walter was part of the assault on Hill 70, surviving the initial action on the first day but receiving serious wounds on the second. He did not recover from these and died at 46th Field Ambulance whilst being treated on Sunday, 26th September 1915. Walter’s Service Record states that he was initially buried at Bethune, but it appears that this cemetery was later destroyed by German shelling and the grave lost.

Gerty had been told that Walter was wounded but, in desperation for news she asked her employer, William Woodman of the Albion Steam and Water Mills, the corn mill on Marlowes, to write to the authorities on her behalf to enquire about her husband. Mr Woodman did so on the 11th October 1915 the same day that Gerty was officially notified of Walter’s death.

Following Walter’s death Gerty was awarded a pension of twenty-one shillings for her and their two children. She received confirmation of this from the War Office on the 15th April 1916 just days before two-year-old Dorothy tragically died.

Walter is Remembered with Honour at the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France on Panel 5 A.

He was 31 years old when he died.

Walter was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.