Walter's Story.
Walter Willmer's photograph from the Birkenhead News
Birkenhead News. 9 August 1916
Captain Walter Willmer Killed
Shot Dead in an Attack
It is with deep and personal regret that we announce the death in action of Captain Walter Willmer of the 19th (Service) Battalion King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, eldest surviving son of the late Mr. Charles W. Willmer, of Birkenhead, and of Mrs. Willmer, Ramsey, Isle of Man. He fell on the morning of Sunday July 30th, in an attack on a German position, his death being instantaneous. The event is all the more melancholy as it is less than a year - namely, on September 22nd, 1915 - that Captain Willmer was married, his bride being Miss May Braithwaite Cooke, B.A., daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Cooke, of Bristol, and Mrs. Cooke, of Liverpool.
A War Office telegram to the young widow was the first intimation received of Captain Willmer’s death, and the news was confirmed in a letter from Captain Harvey Thew Willmer, of the same Battalion, second son of Mr. A. W. Willmer, J.P., T.C. the young officers were cousins, and two other sons of Mr. A. W. Willmer, Captain A. Franklin Willmer, of the 9th Rifle Brigade, and Lieut, Wrayford Willmer of the 17th (Service) Battalion King’s (Liverpool) Regiment - were with the British forces on the same front. After informing his father and mother of the sad news of Captain Walter Willmer’s death, he mentioned (the letter being written on July 31st) that Wrayford and he himself had been wounded, but his own wound was very slight - a touch on the shoulder from a machine gun bullet - and he was able to remain on duty. “Wrayford,” he wrote, “was hit on Saturday night by some small pieces of shell, and is not serious I’m told. I was only chatting to him a few minutes before we were on the way up to the trenches, and it must have happened just after I left him. I think he’ll get to England right away.
Yesterday (Sunday morning) out Brigade had to do another attack, and this time the19th were the first line. I got my bullet in the first five minutes but it didn’t interfere with my carrying on. The C.O. was wounded, and the Adjutant killed just about the same time, which left me in command of the Battalion. Walter was hit in the head with a bullet from a machine gun, and died instantaneously.”
The deceased officer was very well known in Birkenhead and Liverpool, and there have been general expressions of regret at his death, and of sincere sympathy with his mother, and his young wife, so tragically bereaved. He was one of the hundreds of young men of Birkenhead who offered their services to the “Pals” or other Battalions in 1914. Formerly he had been through a long and thorough period of training in the business of Willmer Bros. Ltd. (proprietors of the “Birkenhead News” and the “Wallasey News”), and had become an active member of the firm, energetically carrying out quite a large share of management responsibilities.
He joined the 19th (Service) Battalion of the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, and quickly gained a commission, being made a Lieutenant in the Spring of 1915, and promoted to a temporary Captaincy by a “London Gazette” notice dated August 12th 1915.
The late Captain Walter Willmer was very much liked in his Battalion. He was very bright in his manner, and always of good spirits, and he entered with keen interest into his military duties. When on leave in June last, he spoke in very sanguine terms of the confidence of the “Pals” Battalions that they would be on the winning side.
In his school days and afterwards he was an enthusiastic hockey player, being a member of the Oxton Club, and it may be mentioned that he was the writer of the hockey notes signed “Styx” that were for a long time a feature of the “News.”
Mrs. Charles Willmer has suffered many bereavements during the past twelve years, having lost her husband, her eldest son, her only daughter, and now her second son. She now only has one son remaining to her, Mr. Frederick Willmer.
One of Walter Willmer’s cousins, mentioned in the newspaper article, Captain Arthur Franklin Willmer, 9th Battalion Rifle Brigade died of wounds only a few weeks later, on 20th September 1916. He is buried in St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen.
Newspaper photograph, article and research by Chris Booth.