Source: Leicestershire War Memorials Project.
Coalville Times article - Friday July 16th 1915

One of the Coalville First Fifty - Another Territorial Killed.

Another of the first fifty Territorials, 5th Leicestershire Regiment, to leave Coalville some months ago, has, unfortunately been killed in action. This is Pte. Harry Walker, of Ravenstone, who would have been 29 years of age in August. He is a son of Mr George Walker, who works for the Coalville Urban District Council on the Kelham Bridge sewage farm and resided in Main Street, Ravenstone, and before the war the deceased soldier was working for the South Leicestershire Colliery Co., with one of their carts. He was a former Sunday school scholar and chorister at Ravenstone Parish Church.

Pte. Walker was in Sergt.-Major Roland Hill’s (Coalville) company, and the sad news that he was killed in action on July 2nd was conveyed in a letter from one of his comrades, Pte. Arthur Congrave, son of Thomas Congrave, also of Ravenstone. Writing to his parents on July 2nd, Congrave states:

“I am quite well and am writing today as I may not have a chance tomorrow, as we expect a big do on. We had a very heavy shelling last night and I am pleased to say that very little damage was done to our trenches, but I am sorry to say that one of the lads from Ravenstone, Harry Walker, got killed. He was shot at six o’clock this morning and died almost straightaway, thus suffering no pain. I expect it will put his mother about a lot, but it can’t be helped. He died for his country. I am going to write to Mr Dowling today and let him know. I expect you have heard of the honour that our regiment has won out here. The Royal Leicesters now, Good old Tigers! The Germans don’t like the Leicesters at all. One shouted over to us the other day that they were going to pull the Tiger’s tail. But it was the other way about. They made a mistake that day. They have not pulled the Tiger’s tail yet and don’t look like doing so.”

In the letter which Congrave wrote to the Rev. S. Dowling (rector of Ravenstone) he says they buried Walker in the battalion graveyard on the evening of July 2nd and he asked the rector to convey to Mrs Walker the sincere sympathy of himself and Pte. William Kendrick, another Ravenstone soldier. The homes of the two latter are both in Wash Lane.

Pte. Walker’s last letter was written the day before he was killed, to his cousin at Ravenstone. He said, “I received your welcome letter. We have not done anything the last fortnight. I expect they have something in store for us. This is our second day in the trenches. We are getting on fine, but we get shelled very heavily. Two of us went out on our hands and knees to see what we could find, when we ran into a German trench. We did scuttle. One chap let his horse run away the day we came here, so he had to come with us. He got killed the next day. We have a fresh lot to reinforce us. Girls who write letters out here have caused many a chap to get killed. They write asking for this and that and chaps go out to get them and many a one never comes back. We are about a thousand yards from the Germans now. We took this trench off them, so that they had to fall back into a wood.”

Research undertaken and submitted (including photograph from the Coalville Times) by Andy Murby 5/9/2017