In September 1917 Private Walter Edwin Hunt was killed in action in Belgium a day after his second wedding anniversary. On his casualty form his wife, Mary Ellen, is recorded as living at 64, Prince Rupert Road.
Walter’s address on attestation in May 1915 was in Balham where he was a butcher living with his father. He married Mary in Clapham on 1st September that year when he was living in Barracks in Kent. The address on his casualty form in September 1917 was the Prince Rupert Rd one. So with a husband who was a soldier, she was perhaps a lodger on the estate. Mary Ellen was thirty-two years old when she married, the daughter of a chemical worker but I haven’t been able to establish conclusively where she was born or whether she and Walter had a child.
In 1924 his widow received a letter from the London Infantry Record Officer:
‘I have to inform you that the Plaque and Scroll in respect of your late gallant husband, No 701285 Pte. Walter Edwin Hunt, 23rd London regiment, are held pending verification of address’
She was by that time living at 106A Granby Road.
Walter’s name is listed the Menin Gate memorial – he was killed in action on 2nd September and buried at Ypres. What a terrible tragedy for the young wife.
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