In The Huts Cemetery, Belgium is the Commonwealth War Grave of 93180 Fitter Staff Sergeant Walter Dootson Hindley, serving with the 1st/1st (Highland) Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery who died 25/10/1917.
The husband of Isabella Hindley, of 33, Larch Street, Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne. He was a native of Leigh, Lancs.
Soldiers Died in the Great War states that he was born in Leigh, Lancashire, enlisted in Woolwich, Kent, and resided in Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne.
The Wylam War Memorials Project has researched his story.
Walter D. Hindley, a 9 year old scholar and his mother Matilda, a 34 year old widow and cotton weaver appear as lodgers in 56 Gordon Street, Westleigh, Lancashire in the 1891 census. This is the address of an uncle Alwyn Barnes, a cotton spinner, and aunt Margaret Barnes who are referred to in Walter’s service records along with 7 other relatives living at four other houses in this same street. Almost all the residents in the street are employed in the cotton industry.
Ten years later at the 1901 census Walter now aged 19 is described as a coal miner underground and living with his grandparents John Dootson 68, a gardener and his wife Hannah both Lancashire born and living at 27 Leigh Road, Leigh.
During the next ten years Walter moved from Lancashire to Tyneside, got married on the 13th June 1908 to Isabella Hines a Newcastle girl from Benwell and they started a family. The 1911 census shows Walter 27, described as ‘a relative’ with his wife Isabella 22, and daughter Irene aged 2, living in a house at 76 Clara Street, Benwell with Frederick Arthur Erskine aged 32 and his wife and four children. Mr. Erskine is an engineer machinist at the Ordnance Works and Walter Hindley is still a coal miner presumably working in one of the Tyneside pits.
Walter’s service record commences with his attestation certificate which was signed at Woolwich, Kent (31/05/1916). It might be significant that Walter travelled to Woolwich to enlist, was he on the army reserve and called up with direction to Woolwich? On his attestation certificate in 1916 Walter declares that he has previous military service with the Royal Engineers and gives his regimental no: 2546 and he gives his trade as that of a ‘fitter’. He gives his current address as 33 Larch Street, Benwell, Newcastle and his age 32 years and 5 months. He gives his wife’s name as Isabella Hines and that they were married 13/06/1908 in Benwell, Newcastle.
Walter was attested a gunner on the same day he enlisted and was promoted Sergeant Fitter that same day. Rapid promotion but understandable especially as Walter has previous service with the Royal Engineers and must have been trained as a fitter during his previous service in the army. Walter serves for 5 months in the UK and then was posted to France on 27/10/1916 where he served for almost exactly one year before he was killed in action on 25/10/1917.
It would seem that Walter must have joined the Royal Engineers in the period between the 1901 census when he was a coal miner in Lancashire and the 1911 census when he was living with the Erskine family in Benwell with his wife Isabella. In that census he was a coal miner again. However, he was an army trained fitter and Mr. Frederick Erskine with whom he was living was an engineer machinist at the ordnance works. This may mean that Walter came to Tyneside hoping to get work as a fitter himself?
Walter and Isabella had two children early in their marriage. The 1911 census shows a daughter Irene aged 2 who is not mentioned later in Walter’s service records or in the pension arrangements. In the same 1911 census Isabella declares that she has already lost one child. This indicates that Isabella lost her first two children in infancy. After the 1911 census they have a further two children a boy Walter, born 25/01/1912 and a daughter Olive, born 27/07/1914.
Walter’s service record shows that his wife Isabella was awarded a widow’s pension of £1 9 shillings per week in respect of herself and the two children, Walter and Olive, with effect from 13/05/1918. All correspondence with Isabella is addressed to 33 Larch Street, Benwell, Newcastle.
Isabella, Walter Hindley’s wife, was sister to John Turnbull Hines who lived at 20 Algernon Terrace, Wylam during the war and whose own son Wilfred Hines was killed in the First World War. John Turnbull Hines and his wife Rosetta suffered the loss of both their own son Wilfred and their brother in law Walter Dootson Hindley in the war. Presumably they would have provided support to Isabella Hindley their widowed sister in law and her two children Walter and Olive. They must have arranged for both Wilfred Hines and Walter Dootson Hindley to be remembered on the Wylam War memorials.
Walter Hindley War Service
Home service 31/05/1916 – 26/10/1916
BEF Service 27/10/1916 – 25/10/1917
Walter Dootson Hindley is remembered in Benwell on B86.02 and in Wylam on W73.01 and W73.02
