Peter Wise and Brenda McMahon have submitted the following:-
Walter, born in 1891 at Barnard Castle in 1891 was the son of Irish couple, William and Ellen. He had several siblings including Margaret, William, Thomas, John, Albert and Lily.
In 1891 the family were living at the militia barracks as William (senior) was a corporal with the 3rd Battalion Durham Light Infantry Militia. He had been based for many years at Barnard Castle.
By 1901 the family were living much as before except their father, William who had died that year. His brother, Albert, was a butcher’s apprentice at this time.
The 1911 census shows Walter boarding with the Ness family at 24 Thornton Street Darlington whilst working as a locomotive fitter.
After war broke out, he and his brothers joined the Durham Light Infantry and Walter was sent to the Aegean port of Salonika to help the Serbs fight Bulgaria. Walter later transferred to the South Wales Borderers to become a Lieutenant and was about to be sent to the Indian Army when he contracted malarial fever in 1918. He was then sent to Alexandria. From Egypt he was shipped home to recover, and to marry his fiancée in her hometown of Darlington. However, despite plans to get married on Easter Monday, Walter died on Easter Sunday (April 5th 1918) at his home at 2 Cliffe Terrace Darlington and was buried in Darlington a week later.
Inscribed on his headstone are the words:- “Memory ever clings”
Father, William, was a pensioner of the 2nd Durham Light Infantry. Nearly all of the male members of the Heslop family served at the front in WW1. The Teesdale Mercury recorded in their edition of December 16th 1914 this as being an “excellent record for a family”
Walter Heslop is remembered at Barnard Castle on B135.02, B135.23 and B135.25
