Private Walter Darling

Private Walter R. Darling, 9th ( Service ) Battalion, Cheshire Regiment. He was killed in action in France on 16th September 1918, aged 29, during the “Advance to Victory”. He was the son of Emily and the late John Darling of Norham and is buried in Bethune Town Cemetery, Bethune, France. His sister Mrs S. Darling lived in Norham boathouse and he had been apprenticed to Mr Thomas Simpson ( boatbuilder) as a joiner before leaving to work in a Tyneside shipyard where he had originally enlisted in the Tyneside Commercials, a “Pals” Battalion. ( 16th ( Service ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers ). He had been born in America. The photographs show Allied troops during the final advance against the retreating German army in the last 100 days of the War.