9th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
Private Green appears to be an all too familiar story of a young conscript succumbing to Spanish Flu’, having been in the Army for a very short time.
Walter Fred Green was born on 9 March 1899 at Little Rissington and his parents were Alfred Green (1862-1955), a domestic coachman and his wife Elizabeth Ann (née Taylor: 1863-1951). The couple appears to have had thirteen children, born between 1890 and 1911. Two had died by the time of the 1911 Census.
The family lived in Little Rissington in 1901 but had moved to Chapel Ash, Lower Guiting by the time of the 1911 Census. Walter, aged 12, was still a schoolboy at that time.
Walter would not have been conscripted until after his 18th birthday, reached in 1917. However, his entry in the Register of Soldiers’ Effects (kept at the National Army Museum), states that no gratuity was due when death curtailed his military service. Those serving at home had to serve at least six months to qualify for a gratuity and therefore we can assume that Walter was not mobilised until after May 1918.
Initially he was posted to the 9th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. This was a Territorial Force battalion, which was split into three parts and Walter could have been assigned to any one of them. He would not appear to have been with them long as he was moved to 649 Agricultural Company, Labour Corps (and given the number 462798). This may have been down to his fitness not being of sufficient standard to meet the requirements of front line service or he was seen as being better deployed in a unit which was assisting with food production on the home front, which was the role of the Agricultural Companies.
The Register of Soldiers’ Effects states that he died at Frensham Hill Military Hospital, near Aldershot. His death was recorded on 24 November 1918 and according to a recently released Pension Record Card, the cause was ‘influenza; bronchial pneumonia’ at the age of 19.
This was at the height of the second wave of the pandemic known as ‘Spanish Flu’ to which many young soldiers succumbed.
Private Walter Fred Green was buried in the churchyard of St Michael’s, Guiting Power, on 30 November 1918. He has an unusual CWGC headstone that is inscribed with the battalion number of the Hampshires and also notes service with the Labour Corps. The headstone badge is that of the Hampshires. He is commemorated on the Guiting Power War Memorial.
Researched by Graham Adams 20 May 2021