DVS events 2019
DVS events 2015 and earlier
DVS Photo Archive
A bird's-eye view of Datchet
21st anniversary of Datchet Village Society
Kings, Queens and Villagers; Datchet's Royal Connections
1950-60s Railway Station
Datchet in WWI & WWII
Datchet's WWI Memorial
Adam, Robert, 1896-1916
Aldred, George, 1896-1916
Ball, Albert Henry, 1884-1916
Banner, Frank 1890-1915
Bettles, John Walter, 1894-1916
Boxall, Frederick Albert, 1880-1917
Brakspear, Ronald William, 1875-1915
Burfoot, Sidney Walter, 1897-1918
Butt, John Gillis, 1890-1914
Carrod, Albert Edward, 1895-1917
Carrod, Henry Ralph, 'Harry', 1899-1918
Clifford, Ernest Alfred, 1873-1915
de Paravicini, John Marcus, 1895-1917
Gray, Frederick Charles, 1891-1915
Gray, William George, c1868-1915
Groves, Leonard, 1895-1916
Hallett, George, 1898-1918
Harding, John, c1871-1915
Hickman, Thomas Henry, 1891-1918
Higgs, Francis William, 1897-1917
Horne, Thomas Arthur, 1881-1918
Hutton, John, 1885-1917
Jewers, William Nicholas, 1877-1918
Johnson, Frank, 1894-1918
Johnson, William, 1890-1916
Keeley, Frederick, 1894-1915
Kelway-Bamber, Claude Hershel, 1895-1915
Kinross, John, 1890-1915
Lewin, James Albert (Jim), 1882-1917
Lucas, Henry Guy, 1895-1915
Mason, Albert Edward, 1884-1916
McGrigor, James Neil Grant, 1894-1914
Newen(s), Albert Harold, 1897-1915
Newens, William James, 1894-1918
Nichols, Christopher Thomas, 1890-1918
Norris, William George, 1899-1918
Nugent, 'Leslie', 1884-1914
Pearce, James Hale, 1897-1918
Pickton, Henry, 1881-1917
Poole, William, 1889-1916
Robinson, Hon. Hercules Edward Joseph, 1895-1915
Sanford, Walter, 1883-1917
Slade, Ernest George, 1886-1918
Soden, Harold Corbet, 1896-1916
Stanley, Ronald Bruce, 1892-1919
Steer, Harry William, 1894-1917
Sutton, William, 1899-1917
Tarrant, Philip William, 1880-1917
Walters, Thomas Henry, 1898-1917
Ward, Richard Gough, 1891-1918
Warrell, Leonard, 1888-1915
Widcombe, Arthur James, 1898-1918
Widcombe, Charles Ingleton, 1895-1916
Wilkins, William, 1889-1916
Albon, Joseph Robert, 1887-1914
Ashton, Edward Albert 1894-1915
Barrott, Percival John, 1888-1914
Bowery, William James, 1875-1918
Colbourne, Fred, 1890-1918
Finch, Harry George, 1882-1918
Lisney, Hamilton Pevor, 1889-1915
Love, Joseph Powis, 1892-1919
Love, William Powis, 1898-1918
Stewart, Arthur, 1888-1917
Ward, Artemus, 1882-1918
Memorial Trail leaflet and map
Datchet's War Roll
Datchet's Revised War Roll
The men missing from Datchet's WWI Memorial and War Roll
The list of missing men
Datchet Cemetery
The Memorial Plaque of John Marcus de Paravicini
Women in WWI
Batty, Emily Severne, 1879-1975
Churchill, Leonora Madeline Sillitoe, 1877-1956
Chisholm, Mairi Lambert Gooden, 1896-1981
Curling, Emily Marion, 1850-1942
Curling, Selina Helen, 1887-1980
Dearlove, Olive Mary, 1896-1976
Evans, Violet, 1893-
Hughes D'aeth, Violet Hessie Evelyn, 1875-1960
Jay, Ethel 1872-1932, & Jay, Valerie 1895-1979
Langton, Frances Margaret, 1882-1963; Langton, Mary, 1885-1958
Lewis, Florence Louie Sillitoe, 1879-1966
Mumford, Alice, 1860-1957
O'Fallon, Nora Vincent, 1900-1983
Osborn, Judith Mary 1886-1949
Owen, Josephine Marion 1880-1960
Robinson, Edith Norah Florence, 1893-1947
Rodgers, Margot Eileen, 1897-1975
Rymer, Ada Mabel, 1872-1959
Widcombe, Dorothy May, 1888-1971
Datchet in WWII
Protecting and preserving Datchet's Milestone
WWI history project
The History of your House
Tree-Ring Dating Old Houses
Edmund Earley's Tombstone
2 Stanley Place
Walter Sanford was born in Graveley, Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire). He was one of 18 children born to Samuel Sanford, a farm labourer from Graveley, and his Yorkshire wife Sarah, née Fisher, from Holbeck, Leeds.
The Sanfords lived at Church Lane, Graveley. On the night of the 1891 census, eight-year-old Walter was at home with his parents, Samuel 53, and Sarah, 49. Also in the family home were some of Walter's brothers, Samuel, 18, James, 17, George, 16, and Fred, 14, all farm labourers, and sisters Annie, 11, Edith, 10, and Minnie, 6, who were all still at school, like Walter.
Their father, Samuel, died in 1894, still in his fifties, and Sarah took on work as a charwoman. The 1901 census shows Frederick and Walter at home with their widowed mother and sister Amelia, 16. Walter and Frederick were both working as farm labourers.
In 1911, Walter and Amelia were with their mother. Their brother, Benjamin, 44, a farm labourer, was also with them. All three were listed as single. The census reveals that Sarah, by then 69, had had 18 children, 17 of whom had survived.
A marriage
In early 1913, Walter married Lucy Margaret Swadling. Their marriage was recorded at St Neots, Huntingdonshire. Lucy was born in Remenham, Berkshire, in 1891, and also came from a large family. Her mother was from Huntingdonshire which may explain how Walter and Lucy met. The Swadlings, like the Sanfords, were farm labourers.
(FreeBMD, the births, marriages and deaths website, lists a child, Percy W Sanford, born in St Neots in September 1913, whose mother's maiden name was Swadling but we have not been able to confirm whether he was Walter and Lucy's son. A Percy W Sanford was later married in Staines in 1942 to Olive M Phillpott.)
The Cycle Battalion
In May 1914, before the war started, Walter joined the Huntingdonshire Cycle Battalion at their Headquarters in St Mary's Street, Huntingdon, and became Private 1143 in A Company of the 2/1st Battalion. He gave his address as Offord Darcy, near St Neots, which suggests this is where he and Lucy were living after they married.
The Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion was formed and began to recruit in February 1914. The county had previously had a Volunteer Battalion but in 1908, when the Territorial Force was established to provide home defence, this became part of the Bedfordshire Regiment. Many people were dissatisfied that the county no longer had its own regiment and in March 1913, the War Office granted approval to raise a wheeled battalion.
Walter must have joined soon after the HCB was formed. It had several local drill stations including one at St Neots, and was attached to Eastern Command for use as mobile infantry, and for work on signals, scouting, and similar activities. The battalion remained in England throughout the war though many men were transferred to other regiments and sent to the Front.
In July 1916, while the 2/1st Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion was at Well Camp in Alford, Lincolnshire, Walter was posted to the base depot of the British Expeditionary Force in France. He became Private 43058 of the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.
Datchet Parish Magazine, October 1916
The 4th was the 'Special Reserve' battalion of the regiment. After the disaster on the Somme in July 1916, the 4th was mobilised and sent to the Western Front. They landed in France on 25 July 1916 and joined the 190th Brigade of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, which had been transferred to Army Command.
Not long after arriving in France, Walter was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. He was sent back to the UK, to a hospital in Bristol. In October 1916, Datchet Parish Magazine, left, reported that Mrs Sanford had learned that her husband had been wounded.
When he had recovered, Walter returned to the Front where his battalion was engaged in the Operations on the Ancre from November 1916 to early 1917, specifically at Miraumont in February. In April and May, during the Battle of Arras, they were heavily engaged at the Second Battle of the Scarpe, 23-24 April, when the Division captured Gavrelle. Walter was presumed killed in action during this offensive.
The 4th Battalion
The Bedfordshire Regiment website has published the war diaries of the 4th Battalion here. From these, we have learned what happened during Walter's final days in April 1917.
During the first week of April, the battalion was training at Manqueville, about 30 miles north of Arras. On the 8th, they marched some 12 miles to Maisnil-Les-Ruitz. They remained there on standby until 11 April when they were moved three miles further south to Hermin. They were again on standby until 14 April. From there they were taken to Arras by bus and they took over the line near Gavrelle from the 23rd Northumberland Fusiliers. The next day, 15 April, they were on reconnaissance duty. Two officers and 55 men were killed. From 16-21 April they were moved to the support line near Arras. On 22 April they were back on the front line, facing Gavrelle, where they occupied the assembly trenches. Their objective was, on the right, the boundary main road through Gavrelle to the far side of the village, and on the left, the Gavrelle-Oppy system of trenches, 200 yards north of Gavrelle. On 23 April 1917, the date Walter was presumed killed in action, they attacked at 4.45am, captured Gavrelle and reached their objective. The battalion was shelled very heavily during the day and counter-attacked in the afternoon. Several officers and 260 men were killed.
Walter's death was not confirmed straight away. In July 1917, Datchet Parish Magazine, below, reported: "Among those wounded and missing must now be included Walter Sanford of Penn Road, and much sympathy will be felt for his wife in her time of anxiety."
There was news of Lucy's brother in the same article. Frederick Swadling, son of Mrs Swadling at Stanley Place had also been reported missing. (The other men listed in this notice, Philip Tarrant and Henry Picton are also listed on Datchet's WWI memorial.)
It wasn't until spring 1918 that Walter's death was confirmed. In April, Datchet Parish Magazine reported: "The Fallen – After being kept in painful suspense for about a year, the relations of Walter Sanford have now been officially informed of his death. We offer our sincere sympathy to his widow, and the members of the family, in their sorrow."
Datchet Parish Magazine July 1917
Datchet Parish Magazine April 1918
Remembered at Arras Memorial
Walter Sanford has no formal grave. He is remembered on Bay 5 of the Arras Memorial at Pas de Calais, along with almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and who have no known grave. Walter is also remembered on the Graveley Roll of Honour, and in Datchet. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Family in Datchet
It is not known how long Walter spent in Datchet but it is not thought to have been long. When he joined the cyclist battalion in 1914 he gave his address as Offord D'Arcy, Huntingdonshire. When he was reported wounded in October 1916, Lucy was living "near Talbots Cottages" according to Datchet Parish Magazine. Talbots Cottages were off Workhouse Road, later Holmlea Road. In July 1917, Walter's address is given in the magazine as Penn Road. Lucy's last known address in the records held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was 2 Stanley Place. (Stanley Place, numbers 1-4, was on Horton Road, just beyond Penn Road on the way out of the village.)
We think that Lucy moved to Datchet to live with, or to be near, her family during the war. Lucy's sister Maud, who had married William Johnson (another soldier remembered on Datchet's war memorial) moved back to the Swadling family home in Stanley Place when her husband left for the Front. Two of their brothers, Frederick and Herbert Swadling, both served in WWI and survived. They lived at 2 Stanley Place and their next of kin was listed as their mother at the same address.
The Swadlings or Sanfords are not listed in Datchet in Marshal's Local Directory for 1910, nor do they appear in the village in the 1911 census.
In 1946, Lucy remarried. Her husband, Gentie Elliott, also written as Gente Elliot, was the brother of Elizabeth Carrod, née Elliott. Her sons, Albert Edward Carrod and Henry Ralph Carrod, are also remembered on Datchet's War Memorial. He died in 1959. When Lucy died in 1976, her name was recorded as Lucy M Sanford.
There are many people of interest who served in the ranks and file of the 4th Battalion, including Hollywood actor and director Charles Laughton of the Hunts Cyclists and later the 4th Battalion of the Bedfordshire regiment.
80th anniversary of WWII 31 August 2019
Bronze Age Settlement discovered 16 August 2019
Protecting Datchet's milestone 15 August 2019
Butterfly survey results 14 July 2019
Willowfields Bird Survey reveals 25 different species 6 June 2019
New DVS information leaflet 30 April 2019
Revised DVS Constitution 16 April 2019
Poppies to remember Datchet's fallen soldiers 8 November 2018
Datchet Village History
Datchet Parish Council
Wild About Datchet
Datchet Village
Datchet Neighbourhood Plan
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
Your comments are very welcome; whether as contributions or corrections to current pages, suggestions for topics, or queries about any aspect of the village society and its activities.
The Memorial on the Green
Privacy notice for members
St Nicholas Fayre
Old maps, paintings and photographs of Datchet
80th anniversary of WWII
Bronze Age Settlement discovered
Protecting Datchet's milestone
Wildlife Walk at Datchet Golf Club
Butterfly survey results
The Ellis Journey 2020
Willowfields Bird Survey reveals 25 different species
© 2020 Datchet Village Society