Joseph Walter David Needham, known as Walter, was born in Walthamstow, Essex on Friday, 14th October 1898 and baptised at St Matthew’s, Upper Clapton on Sunday, 27th November in the same year. He was the third child and oldest son born to Edgar Needham and Rhoda Alexandra Marsh who had a total of nine children together. They were: Winifred Rhoda Minnie, Dorothy Alice, Joseph Walter David, Cecil Hugh Latimer, Wilfred Herbert, Phyllis Marjorie, Lyonel Edmond, Douglas Martyn William and Eric Francis. Wilfred died in 1923 aged twenty-one, as the result of a rugby accident received playing for the ‘Camelots’, now Hemel Camelot Rugby Club. He had worked as a reporter for the Hemel Gazette.

When Walter was born the Needham family lived at "Sunnyhill" on Prospect Road, an affluent part of Walthamstow and his father Edgar worked as a Publisher. In fact, Edgar owned an advertising business which he ran from 142 Fleet Street, London and it was his background in this business that brought the family to Hemel Hempstead. Edgar purchased the The Hertfordshire, Hemel Hempstead Gazette and West Herts Advertiser in 1901 and moved with his wife and five young children to the town. The family took up residence at 41 (now 34) Alexandra Road, in a house called "Hill Brow", but referred to locally as the "Red House" due to the striking red tone of the local brick used to build it. Edgar also founded the Berkhamsted Gazette in 1904 and in 1916, he purchased the Star Brewery at Bury Mill End in Hemel Hempstead from John Mayo Biggs. John Biggs sold the Brewery to enlist at the age of thirty-eight and he was killed in France two years later. His biography also appears on this site.

Walter was sent to Berkhamsted school where all his brothers would follow, indeed, his brother Lyonel was in the same class as the famous writer Graham Greene whose father was headmaster at the school. Walter was still at school and too young to enlist when war broke out, but he joined the Hemel Hempstead Volunteer Training Corps (VTC) shortly after it was established in January 1915. The VTC was similar to the Home Guard in the Second World War and at only sixteen years of age, Joseph was one of the youngest "Volunteers".

When he was old enough to enlist with a Cadet force, Walter joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps (OTC) on the 29th October 1915, based at Berkhamsted. The Inns of Court Regiment was a London training unit which initially sourced men from the legal profession. However, due to growing demand for young officers, it opened its ranks to "public schools and university men" in 1915. During that year alone it is estimated that 130,000 men applied to join, of which only one in ten was successful. Walter then trained with the OTC for the next sixteen months and this included digging trenches as well as field manoeuvres across the countryside between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead. In all, the men dug around thirteen miles of trenches across Berkhamsted Common, evidence of which remains visible over 100 years later.

On completion of his education, Walter had been articled to Mr. W. R. Locke, the Borough Surveyor, and was reported to be developing a career of great promise by the time he joined the OTC. Walter Locke played a significant part in the lead up and early stages of the War in Hemel Hempstead as he worked to ensure suitable accommodation and facilities for the various army Regiments billeted in the area. This included services such as water and sanitation as well as the operational facilities which were set up in commandeered schools and halls.

In March 1917, Walter left Berkhamsted and went to Reading to begin his flight training with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). He had been awarded his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on the "General List". This acted as a holding unit for specialist officers (usually reservists) who had not yet been assigned to an active unit. In June 1917, Walter was posted to 83 Squadron at Wyton, Cambridgeshire and took up his position as a Flying Officer and continued his flight training. He was then sent to 44 Training Section in Lilbourne, Warwickshire before being transferred for his final training with 38 Training Section at Rendcomb in Gloucestershire. It was here that he was taught to fly the ‘Bristol’ F.2B Fighter, the biplane used mainly for aerial reconnaissance by the RFC. One month later, on the 23rd October, Walter received his final posting to EF 48 Squadron and was sent to Conteville in France to join his unit and take up flying duties.

Walter’s time in France proved to be brief and only three weeks after arriving, he was killed after crashing whilst returning from a reconnaissance mission over enemy lines. The reports of his death describe how during the sortie, Walter had lost contact with the rest of his flight formation after passing through "heavy cloud", and shortly afterwards his plane had crashed, seriously injuring him and his observer Lieutenant Evans. Walter, despite reaching No.20 General Hospital at Camiers shortly after crashing, died of his wounds on Monday, 12th November 1917.

Lieutenant Evans wrote to Edgar Needham in the aftermath giving a description of events in a letter, which was published in the Hemel Gazette a month after Walter’s death. Lieutenant John Edward Martin Evans was also killed, only three months after Walter, aged 24 and he is buried in Roye New British Cemetery, Somme, France in Grave III. A. 7.

Walter is commemorated on the war memorial plaques in Berkhamsted School, in St. Mary's Church where he worshipped and on the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps Memorial close to the temporary training camp of the Corps on Berkhamsted Common. This memorial is a Grade II listed building and the pedestal bears the inscription: “In memory of the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps who in this neighbourhood trained over twelve thousand men to serve as commissioned officers in the Great War 1914-1918 and in affectionate remembrance of the two thousand who gave their lives for their country. This monument is erected by members and friends of the Corps”. This is followed by the Latin motto of the corps: “SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX” (the safety of the people is the supreme law).

Walter is Remembered with Honour in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France, where he is interred in Grave XXVIII. C. 6. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his father Edgar, reads: “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS”.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

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