Walter Thomas Dowden
Rank: Rifleman
Service Number: 552608
Date of Birth: 1886
Regiment: 1st/16th Bn., London Regt (Queen’s Westminster Rifles)
Date of Death: 14 April 1917
Age at death: 31
Cemetery / Memorial: Arras Memorial
Country: France
Grave / Reference: Bay 10, course B, stone 3.
Relatives: Son of Walter and Anne Dowden, Husband of Ethel Maude Payne (of Hadleigh)
Address: (Ethel’s family home - 3/5 High Street, Hadleigh.
Walter was born in 1886 in Ealing, Middlesex. At the time of the1911 census he was living at home with his parents, Walter and Annie and his siblings and he was working as an agent in the sugar trade.
1911 Census.
After Walter enlisted and was mobilised in February 1916, he married Ethel Maud Payne who was then working in the Ealing Area. Ethel had been brought up in Hadleigh and was the daughter of John Hezekiah Payne who was a boot, shoe and furniture dealer at 3/5 High Street.
Ethel’s younger sister also married a man who is listed on the war memorial, Capt Bertram Wallis MC.
Walter arrived in France in July 1916 and joined the 1/16th London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles). The battalions of the London Regiment were part of the Territorial Force. The 1st/16th battalion were part of the 169 Brigade of the 56th (London) Division and in July 1916 they took part in various phases of the battle of the Somme.
In early 1917 they harassed the Germans as they retreated to the Hindenburg Line and then in April took up positions in the Arras. They fought during the First Battle of the Scarpe, part of the Battle of Arras. They 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 listed on the Arras Memorial to the Missing
