Walter Charles Long was born in Grasmere, near Kendal, Westmoreland in late 1882, the third child of Jacob Long and Sarah Jane Hamblen. Jacob and Sarah had four children who were: Alfred William, Alice Elizabeth, Walter Charles and Elsie. His father Jacob died in 1906 aged fifty. In 1901 Walter was working as a "Draper’s Apprentice" in Kirkby Lonsdale and it was this trade that would eventually bring him to Hemel Hempstead. Before that however, he moved to Oxford to work as a Draper and it was there that he met his future wife, Maude Annie Judd, a farmer’s daughter who lived in the Headington area of the city. It is most likely that Walter and Maude were introduced by one of his work colleagues and Maude’s friend Augusta Burley, a "Draper’s Assistant" who was recorded as a ‘Visitor’ to the Judd household on the 1911 Census return.

Walter married Maude on Monday, 29th June 1914 in St Giles Parish Church in Oxford and at the time he was recorded living on Alexandra Road in Hemel Hempstead and working as a "Draper". The newlyweds set up home at "Scarsdale Villa", 33 Herbert Street in the town and eleven months later on Tuesday, 18th May 1915, Maude gave birth to their only child, a son who they named Eric Walter.

Walter had come to Hemel Hempstead to take up a position with George Rolph who ran a general drapery store at 85 to 89 High Street and shortly after Eric’s birth, Walter attested for military service under the Group (Derby) Scheme. He was unsuccessful however, and his application was rejected for an unknown reason, and he returned to his job at Rolph’s shop. Following the passing of the second part of the Military Service Act in May 1916, Walter, as a married man, became eligible for call up to the military.

At this point George Rolph as his employer, made an application to the local Military Services Tribunal to seek an exemption for Walter. The appeal and outcome were reported in the Hemel Gazette in July 1916 which describes some confusion, stating that Walter’s rejection papers under the Derby scheme had been lost. This meant that he lacked the evidence to fully support the appeal, but George Rolph claimed that Walter’s call-up would adversely affect his business as he had already lost two men to the War. This was not an unusual argument and the tribunal committees were often sympathetic to the business owners plight, given that many of them were also local businessmen. Walter’s appeal was adjourned noting that it would be reviewed as and when he was called up for service. However, in early December the Tribunal determined that it was nothing to do with them and dismissed the case, meaning that as soon as his call-up came, Walter would have to enlist.

This finally came in June 1917 and he went to Watford to attest and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment. Almost immediately he volunteered for the Machine Gun Corps and was sent for the specialist training required for an Infantry Machine Gunner at Grantham in Nottinghamshire. When he had completed his training Walter went overseas, but neither the Division nor the location of his posting are known. He probably arrived in France at the end of 1917 or the very beginning of 1918 and what is known is that he fought in the Third Battle of the Aisne.

On the morning of the 27th May 1918, the Germans began a bombardment of the Allied front lines during which the British suffered heavy losses. The bombardment was followed by a phosgene poison gas drop, after which the main infantry assault by seventeen German divisions commenced. Taken completely by surprise and with their defences spread thin, the Allies were unable to stop the attack and the German army advanced through a forty kilometre (twenty-five mile) gap in the Allied lines. They reached the Aisne in under six hours, smashed through eight Allied divisions pushing them back to the river Vesle and also making gains of an extra fifteen kilometres of territory by nightfall.

Just over 50,000 Allied soldiers and over 800 guns were captured by the 30th May, and Walter was among that number. He was evacuated to a prisoner of war camp in Germany and it was there he died almost immediately upon his arrival. The British authorities were unable to confirm Walter’s death until the war was over and finally did so on the 11th February 1919. His cause of death was recorded as “General Weakness and aedema[sic] contracted whilst on active service”. This would have been pulmonary oedema which often resulted from exposure to phosgene gas, which the Germans had dropped on the first morning of the Third Battle of the Aisne.

Walter’s official pension ledger recorded that he died on Thursday, 30th May 1918 in Germany. His body was taken from the prisoner of war camp and returned to the location of the last battle he fought in, and where he was interred along with sixty other men in a small, peaceful cemetery in the village of Annois, France.

On the anniversary of his death, his wife Maude posted a touching tribute "In Memoriam" in the Hemel Gazette.

He was 36 years old when he died.

Walter was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.