William Douglas Walker

Story:
William Douglas Walker was born in Stoke Newington, London, on 19 Aug 1891 and baptised there at St. Andrews Church on 22 Nov 1891 the son or William Walker, a Stockbroker, and Annie Mary Walker (nee James).  He lived his early life in Stoke Newington until his family moved to Bushey, Hertfordshire.  He became a Pupil/Boarder at Shaftesbury Grammar School, Shaftesbury, Dorset, in 1907.   He had left school by 1910 and began work as a Stockbrokers Clerk at the same time enlisting on 28 Mar 1910 as a Territorial with the 28th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (The Artists Rifles) as a Private (Service No. 840).  He attended annual training camps until the outbreak of war when he was mobilised on 5 Aug 1914.  (His father died in the same year.) He rose swiftly in rank to Sergeant and served with his unit in France and Flanders until by 11 May 1915 he was discharged from the Army and appointed a Sub Lieutenant with the Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve later serving with the Royal Naval Air Service and by the end of the war had become a Probationary Flight Officer. On his discharge he was awarded the Victory and British War Medals along with the 1914/15 Star. 

He married Dorothy Gertrude Pond at the Parish Church in Blandford, Dorset, on 2 Nov 1920. By the time of the 1921 Census he was living with his widowed mother at 'Salpeton'. Merry Hill Road, Bushey, Herts, described as a Stockbroker's Assistant. He appears on a list of Old Boys living in London or suburbs in the February 1922 edition of the Shaftesbury Grammar School magazine.  By the time of the 1939 Register he was living at The Cottage, Heathfield Road, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, described as a Stockbroker (a member of the Stock Exchange) as well as a Volunteer Sub Inspector in the Metropolitan Police Special Constabulary.   His death was recorded at the Lambeth, London, Registry on 12 Nov 1968.  (NB. The Shaftesbury School records in 1914 show him with the 'Australian Contingent' but no record of any such attachment has been found.)