Selected Biography

Bailey, Walter Arthur Francis – Born: Streatham, London on 26.9.1898.[1]  Parents: Walter Bailey ma (School Master) and Elizabeth Marian [née Linton].  Home: Hall Mill, Hall Street, Long Melford (1901), 42 Bellevue Gardens, Brighton, Sussex [1918].  Service Record: Walter attended Shrewsbury School until 1916 when he entered Sandhurst and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant with the East Lancashire Regiment.  He transferred to 2^nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and was posted to the Western Front in November 1917 as part of 5^th Brigade, 2^nd Division.[2]  Died: Walter was recorded as missing presumed killed in action during a forced withdrawal near Bertincourt on 24.3.1918, in the opening phase of the German Spring Offensive.  He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Fauberg d’Amiens British Cemetery, Arras, Pas-du-Calais, France [Bay 6 and 7] and remembered on the Roll of Honour in St Stephens Church, Bournemouth, Dorset.[3]

Notes – [1] www.shrewsbury.org.uk.  [2] For details of the 2^nd Ox and Bucks movements during March 1918 see War Diary [WO 95/1348/6] and his Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [3] Commonwealth War Graves Commission.