Walter Frederick Lane was born in Sidcup, Kent, in the early part of 1893. The younger of two children, his parents were Frederick and Caroline Lane. Frederick was a carman and the transient nature of his work meant that the family moved on a regular basis.
The 1901 census found them in Eltham, Kent, while ten years later the family of three – Walter’s older sister having moved on – were boarding in Harton Street, Deptford. By this point, Walter was 17 years of age, and he was also working as a carman. (It is interesting to note that the earlier census recorded Walter’s parents by their first names, while the 1911 document used their middle names – Walter and Kate: transient work allowing for reinvention, perhaps?)
Walter sought a more permanent career, and, on 17th March 1913, he enlisted in the army. Full details of his military career have been lost to time and, in fact, most of his service details come from his discharge papers.
Walter enlisted in the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), although, as Private Lane, he was not formally mobilised until March 1914. When war broke out, his battalion, the 1st/5th, was sent to India, and he remained there for the duration of the war.
Private Lane’s time in the army was not without incident. He contracted malaria in 1915, and while he initially recovered, the condition was to continue to dog him over the following years.
By 1917 Walter’s troop was based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, but in December that year, the battalion set sail from Bombay for Basra, Mesopotamia.
While in Iraq, he had a couple of run-ins with his superiors. On 22nd December 1917 he was stopped a week’s pay for ‘disobeying an order: putting his equipment on a transport waggon’ and ‘losing by neglect his equipment.’ On 18th February 1918, a further 28 days’ pay was deducted for ‘making away with regimental necessaries (1 towel)’ and ‘neglecting to obey an order.’
During this time, though, Walter’s health was regularly impacted when malaria caught up with him. His discharge documents recorded that he had an attack about once a month, which lasted four or five days each time. In the end, he was released from active service, and left the army on 19th February 1919.
Walter had been discharged while admitted to the Dispersal Hospital in Brighton. His health did not improve, however, and he was soon moved to Somerset for respite care. It was here that he passed away on 7th August 1919. He was 26 years of age.
Walter Frederick Lane was laid to rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard, Newton St Loe, Somerset.
My thanks go to Liz at the local parish office for her help in unpicking the details of Walter’s passing.
Thanks also go to Tim Hill, who has been researching the graves in the Newton St Loe churchyard.
Death and Service 
Hi
I was interested to see the pages on the three WW1 CWG graves in Newton St Loe churchyard. I live in Newton and I have been researching the men on the War Memorial and Roll of Honour in the church, and also the War Hospital at Newton Park.
Most of the info that I have ties in with these pages, but I am not sure about the death of Walter Lane – the text says that he died at the Bath War Hospital in Newton, in 1919, but the Bath War Hospital was not in Newton – it was at Combe Park on the site of what is now the Royal United Hospital.
From the information that I have found about the VAD Hospital at Newton, it was closed in 1916, well before Walter Lane’s passing. It was opened as the Countess Temple VAD Hospital in 1914, but there was a public appeal for funding to build the Bath War Hospital in 1915 which elicited a ‘robust’ letter in the press from Countess Temple saying that her Hospital was underused so there was no need to waste money on a new one, and that if it went ahead she would close the Newton Park Hospital.
This was followed by an item in the press in July 1916 saying that since the Newton Park Hospital had not been used by the military for the last three months, Countess Temple decided to close it on 30th June. At closure it had treated 205 patients, of which 194 were returned to duty, 10 medically discharged and one had died (Charles Fernley).
Just a small detail!
Kind regards
Tim
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Hi there, Tim,
Thank you so much for your email: I am glad that, in general, what I had uncovered tallied with what you were able to find. It is always good to have my researched backed up by someone else, and I thank you for confirming that.
The information you have on the hospitals in the area if much appreciated as well. Because of the task I have given myself, I know I am only scraping the surface with much of my research, and admit to getting a little confused with the war-related hospitals in the Bath area. I was unable to fine a direct connection between Private Lane and Newton, but the local parish office was able to help me a little. It may be that he was sent to Somerset to recuperate following his hospital admission, or he might have stayed with friends or colleagues in the area. I guess we will never know (I quickly got used to the ‘not knowing’ side of my research!).
Thank you for your message and your interest in the Death and Service project, however: it is genuinely appreciated.
Best wishes,
Richard
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