You were kind enough to ring me to say although you were unable to find a definite War Memorial that matched his name exactly, you had found his name on the CD-ROM of “Soldiers Died in the First World War” with regimental number etc, including his birth place, which tallied with one of my genealogy possibilities!
I decided to pursue this line and thought you may be interested in the result. This is a brief summary.
Walter Edward Pike was born in Millhill Pudsey, near Ormesby. He was the son of Walter and Margaret Pike.
He enlisted in Middlesbrough, in the Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards) and was given the regimental number 3/7429. He was promoted to Corporal on 13/03/1915 and subsequently married Annie Bennett (my grandmother) on 26/02/1916 at Shadforth Parish Church.
From "The Green Howards" dispatch of 20 July 1918 the battalion was involved in fighting around Esmery Hallon and the Canal areas. Information from "The Green Howards Gazette" shows him reported at first as missing, then dying (whilst a prisoner of war in German hands) from wounds received in action on the 24th of March 1918 (France and Flanders).
The CWGC have erected a headstone to commemorate Lance Sergeant W E Pike, 3/7429, 2nd Bn. Yorkshire Regiment, in St Souplet British Cemetery. His name is also on the Memorial Plaque in St. Cuthberts Church, Shadforth, where he is listed just as W. Pike.
His widow received a war pension grant of £5 in November 1918 with a pension of 26/8d a week from December 18 until his step children were 16 yrs old. Had my grandmother not married Walter Edward Pike my family history would no doubt have been very different.
I hope this may have been of some interest and many many thanks for the initial information.
Regards
Margaret Tolley
Walter Edward Pike is remembered at Shadforth Church S120.01
