2nd Lieutenant Walter Winkworth.
Photo Courtesy of the IET Archives
On this day 26th August 1915, Bro 2nd Lieutenant Walter Winkworth of the 5th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers made the ultimate sacrifice for his King and Country.
On the evening of August 25 1915, he was directed to carry out a night reconnaissance in the neighbourhood of Houplines, and accordingly led his Platoon out of the trenches into No Man’s Land to accomplish the duty assigned to him; whilst he was feeling his way forward the enemy put up flare lights and thus located his command. The Germans then suddenly opened a heavy machine-gun fire on his detachment and he was hit in the abdomen and the right arm. He was conveyed at once to the Military Hospital at Bailleul, where he succumbed to his wounds on the following day.
His Battalion Commander wrote to his parents :—
“By this time you will have received the sad news of your poor son’s death, and I, as O.C. 5th Battalion, tender you my deepest sympathy. You have lost a good son, a man to be proud of, and you have some consolation in the fact that he died nobly.
“Every one, officers and men, admired and respected him since he joined us some six weeks ago, and we all mourn his loss.
“Your boy was doing some important patrol work in front of our trenches when he was shot in the body. He was then some hundred yards away and absolutely refused to return until he had had his own back, but Sergeant Coppick, who saw he was badly wounded, carried him back until met by the stretcher party.
“My doctor told me he was one of the bravest men he had seen.”
You can read Bro Walter’s biography here
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