Walter Brammer was born in Kendal, Westmoreland, on the edge of the Lake District in 1887. He was the second son of William Brammer and Jane Harton who had four children together who were: Arthur, Walter, George and Agnes. His father William died in January 1916 aged sixty three and his mother Jane succumbed to breast cancer one year later, on the 27th January 1917 aged sixty-one, a short time before Walter married. Walter’s younger brother George also served in the Great War and survived the conflict. His father William was a "Boot Riveter" and in the mid-1890s moved the family to Leeds, where he had been born, and where there was more work. By 1901 Walter had left school and started work as an "Iron Moulder" but he left this job and enlisted with the Army as a professional soldier when he was sixteen-years-old in 1903.

He chose to join the 18th (Princess Mary’s Own) Hussars, renamed Queen Mary's Own in 1910 to mark Mary’s coronation as Queen Consort to George V. The 18th Hussars were a reformed regiment, local to Leeds, and Walter signed up for twelve years’ service. His basic training took place in and around York, until he moved to Ireland with the Regiment in October 1907 to take up garrison duties at The Curragh. Walter was in Dublin until August 1910 when the Regiment moved once again, this time to Bulford Camp in Wiltshire to take part in training manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain. The training was briefly interrupted on July 21st 1911 when a section comprising nine Officers, 215 N.C.O. and men along with 211 horses was dispatched to Bristol to stand ready to aid civil powers in connection with the dock strike in Cardiff. This came to nothing and the unit returned to Bulford.

By the Summer of 1914 the 18th Hussars were still at the "Home Station" of Tidworth, but all this was to change with the declaration of war on the 4th August when orders to mobilise immediately were received. On the night of the 7th August, the Commanding Officer received a telephone message to say that Her Majesty the Queen intended to come to Tidworth the next day to bid farewell to "Her Regiment" before its departure to France. The visit took place and following an address to the assembled ranks, every man received a pipe and tobacco as a parting gift from Queen Mary.

On the 16th August, Walter set sail from Southampton with his unit and disembarked at Boulogne at midnight the following day. By the 21st August the 18th Hussars were in support of the advancing British Expeditionary Force but only four days later the Retreat from Mons began. Walter, now a Lance Corporal, stood and fought with his comrades at Le Cateau on the 26th August and by the time the action ceased the 18th Hussars has lost 70% of its men and horses. However, despite the heavy losses the regiment fought in the Battle of the Marne and then the first Battle of Ypres before the end of the year.

The beginning of 1915 brought Walter’s twelve year period of service to an end and in February at the point of his discharge, he appeared at a Courts Martial at Dover on the 15th of that month. The charge was "absent without leave" and he was subsequently sentenced to forty nine days imprisonment, indicating the seriousness of the misdemeanour in a time of war. However, on his release from incarceration, Walter immediately re-enlisted when he joined the Royal Field Artillery as a "Fitter". He was posted to "D" Battery in the XI Brigade which was under the orders of the 3rd (Lahore) Division and in May and June of 1915 he fought in the Battles of St Julien, Aubers and Festubert and survived all three. In 1916 Walter was in action at the Battle of Mount Sorrel and at the Somme until finally fighting at Vimy Ridge with the Canadians in October.

In the Spring or early Summer of 1917, Walter married  a widow, Jane Sheppard in Hemel Hempstead and gained a young family, Beryl May and Laurence George, Jane's two children from her previous marriage. It is not known how, when or where Walter and Jane met, but she proves to be his link with the town. Jane was a widow living at 16 Puller Road in Boxmoor when they were married and was employed at John Dickinson & Co. Limited in Apsley. It seems that Walter may have only spent a few days in Boxmoor before he had to go back to the Front, from where he did not return.

By early 1918 "D" Battery was south of Poperinghe in the Godewaersvelde sector and during action in early May suffered heavy casualties. Walter was one of the unfortunate men who died during the fighting.

He was killed in action on Monday, 6th May 1918.

His wife Jane never remarried and continued to work at Dickinsons as a "Supervisor of Envelopes" until she retired in 1944. She lived on Pullar Road for the rest of her life and died there in 1968.

Walter is Remembered with Honour in the Godewaersvelde British Cemetery, Nord, France, where he is interred in Grave I.S.15. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Jane, reads: “NEVER FORGOTTEN”

He was 30 years old when he died.

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