Walter Orchard was born in Hemel Hempstead on Thursday, 5th October 1893 the third child born to Walter Orchard and Emily Andrews. Walter and Emily had a family of ten, two of whom died young, but their surviving children were: Daisy, George, Walter, Percy, Mary, Arthur, Edith and Albert. When Walter was born his family lived at 11, Moor Cottages on Blackbirds Moor in Boxmoor. These were known locally as the ‘Star’ Cottages after the Star pub which stood next door to the Orchard family home.

Walter went to Boxmoor JMI school starting in the Infants department in 1898 when he was five-years-old, before moving on to the junior and middle school where he successfully completed four of the seven standards. He left the school one day after his twelfth birthday in 1905 to work on a local golf course in Boxmoor.

Walter subsequently found employment in the Envelope Department with John Dickinson & Co. Limited in Apsley Mills where his father and two of his brothers also worked. He and his older brother George played for the works football team notably in Dickinsons old inter-departmental tournament the ‘Uncle’s Cup’. His football prowess was well known, and he turned out most often for Boxmoor FC in local leagues and cup competitions. A report on a tie in the Herts County Junior Cup appeared in the Hemel Gazette in January 1914, a game in which Walter’s skill and quick thinking resulted in a goal from thirty yards out which guaranteed victory for Boxmoor.  Tragically at three other members of this Boxmoor team, possibly more, were killed in the Great War and their biographies also appear on this site.

Whilst working in Apsley Mills Walter met Nellie Hart, a Tring girl who also worked in the Envelope Department and the pair soon became sweethearts. Their relationship was abruptly interrupted however by the outbreak of war when Walter was amongst the early recruits to the Colours. He attested at Hemel Hempstead at the end of August 1914 and joined the Royal Field Artillery and was posted to 62nd Brigade for basic training. The 62nd was a ‘Howitzer’ Brigade, specialising in a weapon which was much suited to trench warfare and therefore in high demand in the Great War. It fired ordinance at a steep angle of descent, which were better suited than guns to the task of striking targets in a vertical plane, such as trenches.

A few months before leaving for France Walter was granted some home leave and returned to Hemel Hempstead where he married Nellie on Saturday, 8th May 1915 at the Register Office in Hemel Hempstead. The witnesses were his new brother and sister-in law, Thomas and Rose Hart. Coincidentally the Registrar was the a distantly related William J Orchard.

Less than two months later Walter went to France disembarking at Boulogne on the 2nd June 1915 with ‘C’ Battery 62nd Brigade under the orders of the 12th (Eastern) Division. They soon took over a section of the line at Ploegsteert Wood in late June before fighting in the Battle of Loos in September. Here they experienced fierce fighting and heavy artillery bombardment which continued through early October when Walter took part in the action at Hohenzollern Redoubt. During this period at Loos, Divisional casualties were heavy with 117 Officers and 3237 men Killed, Wounded or Missing. Thankfully Walter came through the fighting.

Walter next saw action in the Somme offensive when he fought in the Battle of Pozières in August 1916 and again survived. By the end of 1916 he was granted home leave and having just been promoted Corporal, he returned to Hemel Hempstead in December for a well-earned rest and the opportunity to spend Christmas with his wife and family.

His return to his unit in January 1917 coincided with a move north to Arras in preparation for the next major allied offensive. Walter fought in the initial action of this offensive in the First Battle of the Scarpe from the 9th to the 14th April. Following this action, the 62nd Brigade came under heavy shelling in very bad weather as the Germans re-grouped and although casualties were not significant the War Diary records that: “…the strain was very great.”

On the 23rd April, the Brigade supported a new attack which gained the first but not the second objective and resulted in many units being left in exposed positions. Despite this, casualties were relatively low but unfortunately Walter’s luck ran out and he was killed at some time during the assault.

Walter died on Monday, 23rd April 1917.

Just four months after Walter was killed, Nellie gave birth to their only child whom she named Kenneth Walter Orchard and whose arrival must have been bittersweet. Walter’s death was reported in the Hemel Gazette two weeks after he fell.

He was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited war memorial and on the memorial plaque inside St John’s Church in Boxmoor.

Walter is Remembered with Honour in Bunyans Cemetery, Tilloy-Les-Mofflaines, Pas de Calais, France where he is interred in Grave B.6. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Nellie, reads: “ON THE RESURRECTION MORNING ALL THE GRAVES THEIR DEAD RESTORE”. 

These words were paraphrased from the hymn “On The Resurrection Morning” written by Sabine Baring-Gould who most notably wrote “Onward Christian Soldiers”.

He was 23 years old when he died.

Walter was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.