Walter Moore (1885-1918)

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This page is part of a project by David Verguson to research the lives of those who appear on war memorials and rolls of honour in the Lindley area.

Biography

Walter Moore was born in Lindley in 1885. He was the first child of Arthur Moore, a weaver, who was born in Lindley about 1860 and his wife Mary Hannah Fairbank who was born in Ripponden also in 1860 but had lived in Lindley from the 1870s.

A second son, Harold, was born 1888 and Joe followed at the beginning of 1891. At this time the family was living number 30 Temple Street in the heart of the village, where they would still be living at the turn of the century. Three other children were born but did not grow into adulthood.

Despite going to the Church School on Holly Bank Road, all the children were almost certainly baptised in the Zion Chapel on Lidget Street just around the corner from their home as Walter attended the Sunday School.

In 1901 Walter was working as a cloth finisher and Harold as piecer. In early 1909 Harold, then working as a card grinder at the Sykes factory on Acre Street, married Kate Clegg and lived at number 30 Temple Street. This was the family home but Arthur and Mary may have moved out for they were living at 14 Temple Street in 1911. In late June they had a little boy who was baptised Norman in the Zion Chapel on 22 August 1909.

A few months later in early 1910, Joe married Annie Sutcliffe and moved to Cross Lane, Primrose Hill, where he lived with his mother- and sister-in-law as boarders and worked as a small wire drawer. They may have had a child christened Ronald in the summer of 1917.

Towards the end of 1910, Walter married Sarah Ann Crowther, from Fixby, the daughter of Matthew Crowther, a stonemason, and moved a few yards from Temple Street to number 20 Lidget Street. By 1911, Walter no longer worked in a mill, but was employed as tramway conductor by Huddersfield Corporation. They seem to have had a little girl, christened Doris, at the beginning of 1913. By the time Walter enlisted, the family was living at Burnside, Fixby.

Walter's high service number suggests he did not join the army at the start of the war but either waited for conscription or enlisted under the Derby or Group Scheme. Probably with at least one child, his recruitment may have been delayed a little.

After training he would have been transferred into the 2nd Battalion, a battalion of the regular army, which was, by the later stage of the war, very much diluted by men newly-enlisted.

Walter probably arrived in France in early 1917. He died in the Fourth battle of Ypres in the action around Lys that attempted to halt the German spring offensive that was forcing the British army back. He has no known grave but is commemorated along with over 11,000 others on the Ploegsteert memorial to the missing in the Berks Cemetery Extension 12 kms south of Ypres. This probably means that his burial site was lost in the confusion as the army retreated.

Locally, Walter is commemorated on the memorial in Birchencliffe churchyard, the Parish Church for Fixby. He is also remembered on the Zion Chapel memorial, close to where he had grown up. And, as a worker employed by the Huddersfield Corporation, Walter is also remembered on the memorial in the Town Hall.

Sarah Ann would have received a pension of 13/9 a week plus 5/- for the first child, which she would if she re-married. There is no evidence that Sarah ever did.

It is likely that at least Joe, Walter's brother, served in the war but fortunately he was not a casualty.

Huddersfield's Roll of Honour: 1914-1922

The following extract is from Huddersfield's Roll of Honour: 1914-1922 (2014) by J. Margaret Stansfield:

MOORE, WALTER. Private. No 204284. 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Born Temple Street, Lindley, 3.10.1885. Educated Lindley National Council School. Employed as a tram conductor by the Huddersfield Corporation Tramways Department, Lived Burnside, Fixby. Married. Enlisted January 1917. Killed in action near Bethune on 15.4.1918. Has no known grave. Commemorated PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING.
ROH:- Lindley Baptist Church; Lindley Zion Methodist Church; St. Philip's Church, Birchencliffe; Huddersfield Corporation Roll.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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