William Eaton Guy Walker

Only 34 Robin Hoods made it into the German front line on 1st July and a number of others to the German wire. In the aftermath of the engagement the war diary lists the names of the officers killed and wounded. Amongst them was Captain W E G Walker, the signalling officer, killed.Captain Walker’s body was recovered from the German wire at Gommecourt in March 1917, from where it had lain since 1st July 1916, and he was buried on 21st March 1917, the Reverend Uthwait, the Robin Hoods Battalion chaplain, in attendance.The events of 1st July 1916 hit the Midlands towns hard. Nottingham was one of the hardest hit. Private Stevenson of 7th who had survived the attack on 1st July sent home a postcard to his family commenting;“I’m sorry to say that Nottingham will be plunged into mourning when the casualty lists are published.”He was right. 181 men who had enlisted in 1/7th in Nottingham were killed on 1st July 1916, 43 of them had been born in the city. The 7th Sherwoods suffered 77% casualties on 1st July 1916. Many, of course, had little definite knowledge as so many were listed as missing, presumed killed, as the bodies of their loved ones lay out in No Man’s Land. The stench of decaying bodies pervaded the air for weeks to come. Those bodies that were discovered came to be buried in Foncquevillers Military cemetery, by the Advanced Dressing Station at the rear of the village or were concentrated in 1919 at Gommecourt Wood New Cemetery. The rest became names on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. Of the attacking battalions between 75% and 100% of the men killed on 1st July were never found or only recovered later, between 1917 and 1919. The 7th Sherwoods recorded the largest number of missing, a total of 8 officers and 137 men, with another 24 later to be buried in Gommecourt Wood New Cemetery.Research Simon Williams

The parish memorial is a peal of eight bells one of which, a tenor bell, was dedicated to Capt WEG Walker and Lt HCS Walker: In affectionate remembrance of Captain William Eaton Guy Walker and Lieut Harry Cullis Steele Walker of the Sherwood Foresters, sons of Major and Mrs Walker, Rock House, Old Basford, who fell in France in the Great War 1914 – 1918. For God, King and Country (WMA 37896)