Rank: Lieutenant Regiment: 29th Div. Train, Army Service Corps Died: 03/12/1918 Age: 27 Parish: Budleigh Salterton Local Memorials: St Peter's Burial Ground Other Memorial: Kensal Green (All Souls) Cemetery, London [Google] PDF Download: WALKER Miles
Miles was born in Wimborne, Dorset, to Dr Robert Walker and Margaret Wilkinson (nee Robinson). The family moved to Budleigh Salterton where they lived in East Terrace, and Miles’s brother Arthur Robert was born in 1892.
Miles attended a preparatory school in Budleigh Salterton and went to Bath College for five years. He matriculated in 1910 and was an Oxford Graduate at Queen’s College but delayed his degree until 1917.
He obtained a commission in the Royal Army Service Corps on 14 October 1914 and was later promoted to lieutenant. He served in Egypt attached to the 29th Division and in Gallipoli in 1915. He was invalided out 14 August 1917 on account of ill health contracted on active service. On 15 April 1916 Miles married Constance Emmeline Mcdonald in St Peter’s Church, Budleigh Salterton when he is listed as a lieutenant in the Army Service Corps and living at 7 East Terrace.
Dr Robert Walker died in November 1916 and is buried in St Peter’s Cemetery, so was unaware of his son’s death. Miles Walker’s death is recorded in the Marylebone Registration District of London and it is believed that he died of influenza on 3 December 1918 and is interred in Kensal Green Cemetery. He is mentioned on the gravestone of his father in St Peter’s Cemetery with that information.
The original Commonwealth War Graves Commission Certificate has the incorrect year of his death. His Will Index confirms it as 1918, and an updated version of the CWGC Certificate can now be downloaded using the menu at the left of this page.
His wife Constance did not remarry and died in 1970 in Fleet, Aldershot, England. His mother Margaret, who was born in Glebe Point in Sydney, Australia, died in 1940 at the Charleton Place Nursing Home in Plymouth and is buried with her husband in St Peter’s Cemetery in Budleigh Salterton.
The son of Arthur Robert Walker has kindly provided additional information on the family which will be held in the Local History room at the Fairlynch Museum.
Miles Walker, Lieut, A.S.C. is listed under 'Serving at Home' in the Budleigh Salterton Roll of Honour.
* Required fields