Harrogate Herald - 31st January 1917
Letters
Private W Walker, whose home is at Starbeck,
writes :
Just a line to let you know that my mates and I have
arrived out here safe and sound. Well, I would like to know if you
could put me on your list for a Herald every week, as whilst I was
in training I received your paper and found it very useful, as I
could read all the news about our old town when so far away. I have
three mates - two from Harrogate and another and myself from
Starbeck. I think one paper would be enough, as we could pass it
round, and it would be appreciated, I know, by my pals, and perhaps
would save you a bit of bother by sending one instead of four. Well,
it is very cold at present, snowing and raining all last week. I can
tell you I feel lost without the old paper. George Nicholson is one.
He was a local piano tuner. No doubt you will know him, and the
others are Drummer W Halliday, of Starbeck, and Private J Gledhill,
of Bilton, and myself, Private W Walker, of Starbeck. There
is only one thing that bothers us out here, and it makes us more
done up than anything, and that is cigs. We are all cig smokers, and
we haven't had a proper smoke hardly, so if you have any on hand
know you don't forget the lads from the town we belong to. I have
not met any lads that belong to Harrogate district yet, but no doubt
will see some before long. Thanks to the band, it got us a good
dinner at Xmas, and I thank the contributors who did so much to try
and make us happy whilst away from the old town. No doubt we were a
long time in training, but our time has come, and we are gong to
show what we are made of, I think, this time. All join in wishing
your paper every success. PS - I know a few of your staff : Wilf
Dickinson and Norman Rogers, and I know you will have your hands
full just now.
Harrogate Herald - 7th February 1917
W H Breare letter
Mrs Best is sending out 500 cigarettes to Private
W Walker and his comrades. He wrote last week saying that they
could do with some. This is the second 500 the good lady has sent in
about a fortnight or less.
Harrogate Herald - 25th April 1917
Letters
Private W Walker, acknowledging the receipt
of the Herald, says :
They generally arrive on one day (Wednesday); in
fact, if it does not arrive then we say, "Well, cheer-o! it
will be here tomorrow". It is grand to read the home news,
especially when we are in the firing line. Twice it has arrived up
there, so you will see how we mark time on the mail. We spent Easter
in the firing line, and the weather was very changeable. Good Friday
was fine until teatime, when it burst into showers of rain; but the
best day was Easter Sunday - a glorious day - and it made us sit and
talk of what we would be doing in the dear old town. We had a fair
spell in the line this time, and being in an isolated spot we could
not purchase our usual supply of cigs., and so we had to go short.
If you have any on hand no doubt you will not forget us, as we are
still in a desolate spot. One of my mates, the drummer, is a little
further away from us, as he is cooking for the band, but I always
see some of them, and he does not miss the news, as I think someone
gets the paper. Parcels are the first object we aim for when we get
out of the line, and then nearly every man gets one, but some get
two or three, so then we have a small "bust-up". All join
in wishing your paper every success.
Harrogate Herald - 30th May 1917
Photo Page
Wounded - Private W Walker, WY, son of Mr
and Mrs J Walker, 15 The Avenue, Starbeck, was wounded in the
shoulder on the 3rd May, and is now in hospital at Liverpool.
Harrogate Herald - 1st August 1917
W H Breare letter
Private W Walker, of the Beechwood lot, is a son of Mr
& Mrs E Walker of 15 Avenue Street, Starbeck. He was wounded
in the shoulder by shrapnel on May 3rd, and for the time being has
lost the use of the muscles on the right arm. He has been in
hospital at Liverpool, but is now, I am glad to say, at Beaulieu,
one of our Harrogate Military Hospitals, which perhaps you will
remember as being situated in West End Park. While at Liverpool, Walker
met Private Pacey, who used to drive for Balmforth. Walker,
who went out in January, expressed his thanks for the cigarettes
kind friends sent him through me. When he arrived in Harrogate he
saw Lupton and Sergeant Croft, both of whom are home for
commissions. He likewise told me he saw the two Greetham boys. of
Starbeck, were home - one from France, the other from Aldershot.
Rather lucky to be home together, isn't it? When Walker got
his hurt, he experienced something that seemed like a dispensation
of Providence. He was moving breast on the enemy, when
"something within", he says, told him to turn round. He
did so. It was just at that moment he received the bullet in his
shoulder. Had he been facing the other way he would have got it in
the heart, what is termed his "billet". He did not get
away from the field for two hours. I was interested to hear from him
that Wilfred Dickinson, one of our Herald staff, is in India. When Walker
enlisted he had been two years with Grayson's. Before that he was
employed on the railway.
