3773/201160 Pte Robert Walton aged 20. Son of Mr CE and Mrs SH Walton of 19 Vale St., Derby. A waggon builders boy he enlisted in November 1913 aged 15.

“It is with great regret that I have to inform you that a serious accident happened this afternoon to your son. He was asleep with Pte. R Watson, a friend of his in a shelter in our trench, when a shell exploded close to them, and they must have died at once, without knowing anything about it. It has been a great loss, not only to the Platoon, but to the entire company, and to every one of us, it was a terrible grief when what had happened. I went up at once to find out if anyone had been seriously hurt, as I saw the shell come, and then the stretcher bearers. I saw it was fatal when I got there.”

[Worksop Guardian 10 May 1918]

Note: The misspelling in the paper, which should refer to Pte Robert Walton

4923/201856 Pte Thomas Edward Walton aged 24.

Thomas had only just been posted back to the 1/5th Sherwood Foresters on the 14th February 1918 after serving in the Labour Corps as a result of deafness brought on by a shell explosion in  May 1917.

In addition to losing her two son’s their processions were also lost to the family