Walter Henry Hawkins

He was born in Kintbury, Wiltshire in 1888, the younger of two sons of Samuel Hawkins, market gardener, born in Melksham, Wiltshire and his wife Martha. They were living in Wheatfield near Thame in 1891 and in Littleworth in 1901. Walter is recorded as having attended the school in Wheatley in 1895, and the Night School between 1901 and 1905 when he was aged 18. He enlisted in Swindon in 1916 and was assigned first to 132 Oxford Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has a W.H. Hawkins who was an Acting Bombardier (the equivalent of Corporal) in the R.G.A., Service No. 605. He died in the home theatre of the war in the year of his enlistment, on 11 December 1916, aged 29, and is buried in Aldershot Military Cemetery, ref. AF.2033.