Roll of Honour - Cambridgeshire

Lt. "C" Company, 1/1st Cambridgeshire Regiment. Died of wounds 6-5-15, age 19. Son of Walter Wooll West & Sarah Grace West, Needham Hall, Friday Bridge. Klein-Vierstraat British Cemetery, Belgium.

Extract from THE BOND OF SACRIFICE VOLUME 2 JAN-JUNE 1915:

LIEUTENANT WALTER MONTAGU WEST, 1st BATTN. THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE REGIMENT (T.F.), the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter W. West, of Needham Fridaybridge, Wished', Cambridgeshire, was born there on the 23rd December, 1895. Several of his maternal relatives were Army men, his grandfather and two great-uncles taking part in the Crimean War. His great-grandfather was the first Mayor of the Borough of Gateshead. After a preliminary education at Mr. Beresford's Preparatory School, Hunstanton, Mr. West went on to Oundle School, where he proved himself a good all-round athlete. On leaving school he went home to take up farming with his father, and joined the Territorial Force, receiving his commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Cambridgeshire Regiment in March, 1914.

When the War broke out in August, 1914, he was called up, and went into training with the Wisbech Company. He was promoted Lieutenant in December, 1914, and went out to the front with his Battalion in February, 1915. He served in the trenches at St. Eloi and round Ypres, and on the 5th May, 1915, he was wounded near the latter place and died shortly afterwards. He was buried at Bussetoom, near Poperinghe.

The following account of the circumstances of his death was given by a Company-Quartermaster-Sergeant "From what I can learn, C Company were ordered to take up a position in a support trench on Wednesday, the 5th inst., about 5 p.m., and were approaching their destination when the Germans opened a heavy shell fire, killing five men and wounding about thirty, Lieutenant West was badly wounded in the left leg by shrapnel, After being attended to by the regimental doctor, he was taken by motor ambulance to one of the field hospitals, and unfortunately succumbed to his wounds about six o'clock yesterday morning. He was buried in a field where a small cemetery has been established close to where we are now stationed in Belgium." In another letter he says: "Never had the Company a better officer. He was always helping and cheering his men, and, as you know, his men loved him."

A Captain in the Gordon Highlanders wrote: "Sergeant Rowe, of the 1st Cambs. Regiment, is at present at the above hospital (the Australians Hospital, Wimereux, near Boulogne) wounded in the arm. He has asked me to tell you that your son, Lieutenant W. M. West, of the 1st Cambs., was wounded alongside him on Wednesday afternoon last, and that he died of his wounds the same night in the field dressing-hospital just outside Poperinghe."

FRIDAY BRIDGE WAR MEMORIAL