Gunner Walter George Horton
"B" Battery, 15 Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, 216543
Killed in action
Date of Birth: 2nd Quarter of 1898
Place of Birth: Stokeingteignhead, Devon
Date of Death: 29th April 1918 aged 19
Buried: Gwalia Cemetery, Belgium
Awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Gunner Walter George Horton, son of William Henry and Emily Horton of Higher Gabwell, Stokeingteignhead.
Born in Stokeinteignhead in the 2nd quarter of 1898.
The 1911 census shows the family living at Higher Gabwell farm, Stokeinteignhead. Walter's mother, Emily Louisa, born 1869, is a widow, and the farmer.
A Farm Bailiff called William Robert Dymond was living with them.
| Walter and his siblings | |
| Emily Louisa Horton 1894 |
Francis Horton 1896 |
| William Henry Horton 1898 |
Walter George Horton 1899 |
| Frank Alfred Horton 1900 |
Harold Robert Horton 1902 |
Walter joined the Royal Field Artillery as a Gunner and was later with the Royal Horse Artillery. He was with "B" Battery, 15th Brigade.
Royal Horse Artillery (13 pounder) battery galloping through a river, 1918. © IWM (Q 6722)
"On April 1915, the right section of B Battery was the first Horse Artillery unit ashore during the Gallipoli landings.
During the battle, the battery fired more ammunition from their 18-pounder guns than any other battery, and when the Allied forces pulled out, B Battery was the final Battery to leave the peninsula.
In 1916 the battery was almost continually in action during the Somme Offensive. Later in 1917, the Battery moved to support the Allied offensives at Arras, the Third Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Cambrai and the Battle of the Lys.
During these years, the Battery experienced gas and aerial bombardment for the first time and B and L Batteries was victorious at the Battle of Cambrai (1917) on 20 November 1917. In 1918 the battery fought at the Battle of Passchendaele".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XV_Brigade,_Royal_Horse_Artillery
Walter George Horton was killed in action 29th April, 1918, his battery were fighting at the Battle of the Lys, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres, which was part of the German Spring Offensive in Flanders.
The Battle of the Lys. Gunners of the Royal Field Artillery manhandling a 18 pounder gun into a firing position beside a ruined house in the village of Saint-Floris, 2 May 1918. © IWM (Q 6583)
Walter's CWG commemorative certificate. Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Download commemorative certificate
