Walter was the son of William and Esther Smith of Church Banks, Avenbury. He joined in September 1917. Before entering the army he was in the employ of Mr T.J. Foulkes of Bromyard. Walter died of wounds in a hospital in France on 31st March 1918 aged 23 years. He is remembered with honour DOULLENS COMMUNAL CEMETERY Commemorated at St Peters Church Bromyard The 5th, 6th and 7th all spent the period 1915 to 1918 exclusively on the Western Front and saw extensive action in all the major offensives, especially on the Somme and in the Ypres Salient. Doullens was Marshal Foch's headquarters early in the First World War and the scene of the conference in March 1918, after which he assumed command of the Allied armies on the Western Front. From the summer of 1915 to March 1916, Doullens was a junction between the French Tenth Army on the Arras front and the Commonwealth Third Army on the Somme. The citadelle, overlooking the town from the south, was a French military hospital, and the railhead was used by both armies. In March 1916, Commonwealth forces succeeded the French on the Arras front and the 19th Casualty Clearing Station came to Doullens, followed by the 41st, the 35th and the 11th. By the end of 1916, these had given way to the 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital (which stayed until June 1918) and the 2/1st Northumbrian Casualty Clearing Station. From February 1916 to April 1918, these medical units continued to bury in the French extension (No 1) of the communal cemetery. In March and April 1918 the German advance and the desperate fighting on this front threw a severe strain on the Canadian Stationary Hospital. The extension was filled, and a second extension begun on the opposite side of the communal cemetery. In May 1940, Doullens was bombed with Arras and Abbeville before being occupied by the Germans. The COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION No 1 contains 1,335 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also seven French and 13 German war graves from this period.

Mandy Palmer