Walter Chennells was born in Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in Kilburn, North London on Saturday, 21st January 1899 and baptised in St Mark’s Church, Marylebone two weeks later, on Thursday, 2nd February. He was the only son of Florence Elizabeth Chennells who was a native of Great Gaddesden in Hertfordshire. Queen Charlotte's is reputed to be the oldest maternity hospital in Europe having been founded in 1752. Today it is part of Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital. Walter’s mother Florence was in domestic service and had been working as a “Housemaid” since leaving school. She had worked for Duncan Field a ”Miller” and “Corn Merchant” at Noake Mill near Water End, Hertfordshire, but she had left his employ and moved to London sometime after 1891. After he was born, Walter did not stay with his mother who continued in service, but it is not clear where he went after he was born.

There is a record of a two-year-old Walter Chennells living in Sapcote, Leicestershire with the Brown family as a “Nurse-child”, and this may have been a friend who had taken Walter in to help Florence. Florence in the meantime was working as a “Housemaid” for the Brassey family at Normanhurst Court at Catsfield near Battle in East Sussex, one of sixteen household staff in this large house. Normanhurst Court had been built by Thomas Brassey one of the leading railway builders of the 19th century and was the Brassey family home for many years. It was a military hospital during WW1, later a girls school and finally a prisoner of war camp during WW2.

By 1911 Walter, aged twelve, was living with his Grandmother Martha at “Kemp’s Orchard” near Grovehill in Hemel Hempstead. This was an area which was situated to the east of Piccotts End and at the top of what is now the “Link Road” in Hemel Hempstead and the Grovehill housing development. Walter left school in 1912 but where he went to work is not known, however, as soon as he had reached his eighteenth birthday he travelled to Watford where he volunteered for service.

He attested in March and enlisted in the Army and was posted for basic training to the Training Reserve Battalion based at Dover. The following year when he was old enough to go overseas, he was posted to the 17th Battalion Royal Fusiliers and sailed to France on the 18th February 1918. Walter was with the 17th Battalion until the 3rd July 1918 when he was posted to the 10th Battalion, a unit originally raised in the financial district of the City of London and known as the “Stockbrokers Battalion”. He arrived shortly before the Battalion went into action in what became known as the “One Hundred Day Offensive” which ultimately led the Allies to victory and the Armistice in November 1918.

Sadly young Walter did not survive to see the end of the war and he fell during the Battle of Albert near Trescault on Sunday, 14th September 1918.

Following his death, Walter’s mother Florence married James Palmer in Stepney, London in 1919 and they moved back to Hemel Hempstead where they lived at “Lane Farm” Cottages just a short way from where Walter grew up at “Kemp’s Orchard”. Florence died in 1957 aged eighty-five and is buried in Heath Lane Cemetery. His Grandmother Martha who raised him was recorded as his “Mother” on his military records and she died in 1921 at the age of eighty-one, however, not before she ensured that her Grandson was commemorated on the War Memorial Plaque in St. Mary’s Church on the High Street in Hemel Hempstead.

Walter is Remembered with Honour in Fifteen Ravine British Cemetery, Villers-Plouich, Nord, France, where he is interred in Grave VI. E.11

He was only 19 years old when he died.

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