CARTER, Walter


No.307895, Private, Walter CARTER
Aged 37


2nd/7th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers
formerly No.55993, Liverpool Regiment
Killed in Action on Thursday, 21st March 1918


Walter Carter was born in 1881 in Great Thurlow (Newmarket Q4-1887 3B:516A), baptised 1892 in Ashley cum Silverley, son of William and Alice CARTER (née CARTER).

1881 census...Aged 1 month, he was at The Cottage, Great Thurlow with his widower grandfather John CARTER [69] farm labourer born Gt Thurlow, his father William CARTER [24] farm labourer born Gt Wratting;his mother Alice [28] born Gt. Thurlow and sister Elizabeth [7] born Gt. Thurlow.

1891 census...Aged 10, he was at Near Street, Lidgate with his parents; sisters Harriet [8], Jane [6] and Eliza [5] all born in Gt Thurlow and sister Alice [9 months] born in Lidgate and brother Frederic [3] born in Lidgate.

1901 census...Aged 20, horse keeper on farm, he was at Church Lane, Ashley with his parents (father now recorded as born Barnardiston), sister Eliza and brother George

Believed to be the Walter Carter who married Elizabeth WILLIAMS (Newmarket Q4-1902 3B:1267)

1911 census...Aged 30, horseman on farm, he was at Chapel Row, Ashley cum Silverley with his wife, Elizabeth [27] born Gt Thurlow, and their son Cecil WILLIAMS [8] born Newmarket, and daughter Minnie CARTER [3] born Ashley.



He enlisted in Ormskirk, Lancashire, when resident in Newmarket.
The battalion war diary for March 1918 seems to be missing.
The 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division, to which the 2nd/7th Lancashire Fusiliers were attached, were involved in the Battle of St Quentin (21-23 March 1918). The start of the German Spring offensive saw them outflanked and forced to retreat on 21st March 1918. The 2nd/7th lost 88 killed of which 72 have no known grave.
The battalion. in April 1918. was reduced to a training cadre and in June returned to England.

He fell on the same day and is named on the same memorial as another Ashley man named on the memorial
Rifleman, Charles Dodd






photo: Roy Beardsworth



Walter Carter is commemorated on the Pozières Memorial, panels 32-34

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


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