Walter Thomas Dowden
Rank: Rifleman
Service Number: 552608
Date of Birth: 1886
Regiment: 1st/16th London Regt (Queens Westminster Rifles)
Date of Death: 14 April 1917
Age at death: 31
Cemetery / Memorial: Arras memorial
Country: France
Grave / Reference: Bay 10
Relatives: Son of Husband of Ethel Maude Payne (of Hadleigh)
Address: Ethel’s family home was 3/5 High Street, Hadleigh
Walter was born in Ealing, Middlesex in 1886. By the time of the 1911 census he was 24 years old and living at home with his parents, Walter and Annie and his siblings. At that time he was working as an agent in the sugar trade.
1911 Census.
Shortly after Walter enlisted and was mobilised in February 1916, he married Ethel Maud Payne who was then working in the Ealing area but who had been brought up in Hadleigh the daughter of John Hezekiah Payne who was a boot, shoe and furniture dealer at 3/5 High Street.
Ethel’s younger sister, Margaret Payne also married a man listed on the Hadleigh war memorial, Capt Bertram Wallis MC.
The battalions of the London regiment all belonged to the Territorial Force. In early 1916, the 1st/16th London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles) were part of the 169th Brigade, the 56th (London) Division and were in France. Walter joined them in France in July of that year. At that time the Division had moved to the Somme region and took part in various phases of the Battle of the Somme.
In early 1917, the Division followed the Germans has they retreated eastwards to the Hindenburg Line. By April the Division were establish in the Arras area and took part in the First Battle of the Scarpe, a phase in the Battle of Arras.
Walter’s battalion had moved into trenches on 11 April 1917 and over the next few days progressed south west with the objective of taking the village of Cherisy. They were relieved on 14 April without taking the village. One hundred and fifty fell during those few days and one of them was Rifleman Walter Thomas Dowden. His body was lost and he is now remembered on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
