PRIVATE 64293 WALTER LAYFIELD 214 COMPANY MACHINE GUN CORPS.


PRIVATE 64293 WALTER LAYFIELD 214 COMPANY MACHINE GUN CORPS. KILLED IN ACTION 20th SEPTEMBER 1917 AGED 20.



Walter was the second of James and Frances Layfields sons to be killed on the Western Front in 1917. Three months earlier an older brother, Charles, had died at the Battle of Messines.

Born in 1896 Walter was raised on the Willow Hall Farm near Denton and was one of ten children. On 10th December 1915 Walter travelled to Keighley where he volunteered for the army, however, as he was not immediately required he returned home to await his call up. Mobilized on 27th July the following year he made his way to Halifax where he enlisted into a training battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. later that year on 12th December 1916 he transferred to the 214th Company Machine Gun Corps which was being formed at Grantham in Lincolnshire.

The 214th Company arrived in France on the 16th March 1917 as part of the 58th (London) Division and moved into positions on the Western Front. On 20th September Walter and other members of his company where manning their guns in the front line near to the Pilckem Ridge north of Ypres. German shelling had caused casualties all day and at one stage Walter and comrade where helping to carry a wounded man when a shell exploded nearby killing all three men. Clifford Kitson of Yeadon, a friend who had enlisted with Walter wrote ".......He was buried by the section a few hours after they were killed.....We are all very sorry and wish to share with you in your trouble that he died that others might live. Walters commanding officer would write of him "...he always did his duty and showed the greatest courage under the most dangerous and trying circumstances.

Private Walter Layfields grave was lost during subsequent fighting and he has no known grave. He is commemorated on the memorial to the missing at Tyne Cot and remembered on the war memorial in Ilkley.

Thanks to Linda Layfield for the photograph of Walter


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37

Image
SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1 st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29 th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37 Harper Whitaker was born in Horsforth in 1881 the son of a stone contractor Thomas Whitaker and his wife Anne. One of twelve children he and his family lived in a large house called Summerfield, on New Road Side. A pupil at Ilkley Grammar School he went on to study civil engineering and during the early years of the 20 th Century went to work on the Lagos Railway in Nigeria. He was in the colony at the outbreak of war in 1914 and made an application to join one of the locally raised regiments who would see action in nearby German controlled Cameroon. However, because of the essential nature of his work he remained at his post with the railway company. By 1917 local West African units had been formed into the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) and sent across the continent into East Africa where they were to assist in the long running campai...
Read more

LANCE CORPORAL 1962 HENRY SCOTT (HARRY) CRYER, 1/6th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 19th AUGUST 1915, AGED 28.

Image
LANCE CORPORAL 1962 HENRY SCOTT (HARRY) CRYER, 1/6 th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 19 th AUGUST 1915, AGED 28. It was at about 10.30am on the 19 th August 1915 that Lance Corporal Harry Cryer went into a dugout in the reserve lines of the 6 th West Yorkshire Regiment who were in position to the north of Ypres. As he roused one of the occupants a German shell landed on the parapet of the trench killing Harry instantly. Harry was born in Muswell Hill, London in 1897 the eldest son of Walter and Mary Scott who both originated in the West Riding. His father seems to have been involved in a number of business ventures in London and Essex but by the early 1900s he had brought his family back to Yorkshire. The family came to live in Ilkley and for a number of years occupied a house on St James Road and Harry attended Ilkley Grammar School. By 1911 the Cryer family were living on Duckworth Grove in the Girlington area of Bradford and Harry was employed ...
Read more