John Walker
Waterloo County Peace Souvenir
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born ion 23rd September 1897 in West Hartlepool and one of the eight children of Harrogate born dock labourer David and his wife Ellen (nee Hobson) Walker, aged ten John William travelled with his mother and siblings to Canada to join their father then working as a bricklayer in Simcoe, Ontario. By 1911 the family were established in Galt, Ontario where father David was working at the foundry, and young John William had joined the local militia group the 29th Highland Light Infantry based in Galt.
Just before Christmas 1915 John enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force as Private 730243 of the 111th (South Waterloo) Battalion which embarked for England on 25th September 1916 on board the SS Tuscania, arriving in Liverpool eleven days later and then travelling onwards to camp at East Sandling, Kent. Just a week later the 111th was absorbed by the 35th Reserve Battalion to provide reinforcements for the Canadian Corps in the field.
At the end of April 1917 five months short of his 20th birthday Private Walker was part of a reinforcement draft of men sent to join the 1st Battalion then in billets at Mont St.Eloi. Five days later on the front line near Fresnoy Private 730243 was wounded in his left wrist, which when he was treated at #10 Canadian Stationary Hospital at St.Omer was found to have caused a compound fracture. Within a week he was in hospital in Eastleigh, Hampshire followed by convalescence at Epsom and discharged from medical care early in July he rejoined his unit in France in October in billets at Bruay.
In August 1918 the 1st Battalion were on the Somme and it was here on the front line at Upton Wood on 30th August 1918 that Private 730243 John William Walker was killed in action.
His name does not appear on any local war memorial.
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance, on the Galt War Memorial, Ontario and in the Waterloo County Peace Souvenir.
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Walker
