Walter Webb was born in Clophill, Bedfordshire on Saturday, 22nd January 1881 the second child and oldest son born to Arthur John Webb and Louisa Brashier. Arthur and Louisa had a large family, even by the standards of the time, and between 1879 and 1903 they produced fifteen children of which five sadly died when young. The children were: Louisa, Walter, Nellie, Emily, Arthur, Ada, Mary Ann, Susan, George, Alice, Daisy, Violet, Annie, Charles and finally Arthur. The children known to have died were; Louisa and Emily in 1891 and Nellie in 1902.

Walter grew up in Clophill and like his father Arthur, he started working as an ‘Agricultural Labourer’ and specifically as a ‘Horse Keeper’. Whilst still living in Clophill, Walter met Jane Emma Elizabeth Maynard and they were married in Bedford in 1905. Almost as soon as they married the couple moved to Leverstock Green in Hertfordshire, possibly because Walter found another farming job and two years later their first child Ethel was born.

By the time of the 1911 census Walter was working at Apsley Paper Mills with John Dickinson & Co Limited and he was recorded as a ‘Collector of Orders’. The young family lived at ‘Belconey’ in Leverstock Green and in 1915, shortly before Walter enlisted, their second child Emily Louisa was born in February.

Walter attested at St Alban’s in May 1915 and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment. It is thought that he had tried to enlist previously but had been rejected as ‘unfit’ due to asthma, however on this occasion, he was accepted for service and went to train at Ampthill Depot. During 1915 he served in various stations on home defence duties before going to France in 1916 in time to fight in the Battle of Vimy Ridge on the 9th April.

This was followed by the Battle of the Somme from the 1st July until the last major engagement of the Somme offensive at Ancre, between the 13th and 18th November. It is possible that Walter was wounded at Ancre as he was invalided home before the end of the year. However, he returned to the Front in 1917 with the 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment and during the first few days of February, the Battalion was engaged in operations in the front-line trenches on the north bank of the River Ancre. It was here that Walter was killed possibly by shell fire from enemy attacks.

He died on Sunday, 4th February 1917.

Walter is commemorated on the Leverstock Green War Memorial.

Walter is Remembered with Honour in Ancre British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, France where he is interred in Grave VIII. F. 21. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Jane reads: “A LOVING HUSBAND A FATHER KIND A BEAUTIFUL MEMORY LEFT BEHIND”.

He was 36 years old when he died.

Walter was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.