Walter Maytum (1896-1918)

Post date: Oct 03, 2017 10:3:29 AM

Walter Alfred Maytum was born 8th May 1896 in Wateringbury. He was baptised the 5th July 1896.  He was the son of Thomas and Grace who lived at Home Farm, Wateringbury  and was one of 12 children they had, 10 of whom were alive at the time of the 1911 census and 7, including Walter, still at home. A thirteenth child was born during the war: Gladys Maytum was baptised at Wateringbury Church in May 1915. 

Thomas is recorded as a Waggoner Brewery & Farm  at the 1901 census and Waggoner on Farm at the 1911 Census. Thomas' occupation with horses must have influenced his children. Not only did Walter join a cavalry regiment but so did his elder brother, Thomas, who was a regular soldier at the outbreak of war serving in the Royal Horse Artillery in India; and elder brother George came home in 1915 on leave with a broken arm following an accident at Ascot with wild Canadian horses.  

Walter's younger brother Frederick died in 1905, aged 6, after an operation in Maidstone hospital while they were both at Wateringbury school. 

But the following year Walter went on to win a K.E.C. medal presented to him by General Wolseley at the 1906 Empire Day celebrations. Later in the day at the sports held in the grounds of Wateringbury Place he won prizes for the 100 yards, 200 yards and wheelbarrow races. 

At the 1908 Empire Day he was again awarded an attendance medal.

In 1908 and 1909 at Wateringbury school he won the Toogood gardening prize. (Toolgood & Sons were seedsmen based in Southampton.)

He was a member of the Wateringbury Boy Scouts as, in 1919, he is listed as one of the five Wateringbury Boy Scouts killed in WW1 at a memorial service for scouts held at Wateringbury Church. 

Sometime between the 1911 census, when he is recorded at the age of 15 as a farm labourer, and the outbreak of war he enlisted. So in the Vicar's first list of Wateringbury men serving in the armed forces (September 1914) he is shown as a regular soldier in the 15th Hussars (C squadron). William Latter, badly wounded in 1914 at Ypres was also in the same battalion although a different squadron.

Walter's service record is not available, but the progress of the 15th Hussars can be followed through their war diaries or The History of the 15th The King's Hussars 1914-1922 written by Lord Carnock. Although most of the 15th went to France in August 1914 shortly after the outbreak of war, if Walter was in the machine gun detachment, he would not have gone until the later stages of the Battle of Aisne. Although a cavalry unit with horses, the 15th Hussars usually fought on foot as an infantry unit. The machine gunners were particularly useful during the capture of the village of Le Pilly in October 1914 but in November the machine gunners, when based just south of Veldock, were overwhelmed by a German rush.

In late February 1916 trained machine-gun sections were transferred to the 9th Machine Gun Squadron and it is possible that it was then that Walter left the 15th Hussars on becoming part of the 9th Machine Gun Squadron. However another source (not authoritative) records he was also in the  Reserve Regiment of Cavalry, 14th Battalion, service number 11206.

Extract from Kent Messenger 8th June 1918

Pte. W. Maytum (Wateringbury),

Machine Gun Squadron (Cavalry Division)

MISSING.

47071 Pte. W. Maytum, son of Mr. and Mrs. Maytum, of Bow Road, Wateringbury, has been missing since March 22nd. Mrs. Maytum received a letter from the C.O. on the 7th May, saying: “All the officers of the party in which, your son was are prisoners and I’m now very hopeful that he may be the same.” Other information would be gladly received by his mother at the above address. Pte Maytum joined the Army before the outbreak of war.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his date of death as 22nd March and his service number as 47071. He was in the 9th Squadron of the Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry). He is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial (along with Percy Fuller also from Wateringbury Scouts). Pozieres is a village 6 kilometres north-east of the town of Albert on the Somme. 

Walter's death was the day after the German spring offensive, known as the Kaiserschlacht, was launched. In a colossal attack in which British forces were severely outnumbered the British fifth army was routed on the Somme. An early morning fog helped. The opening German bombardment from 6,500 guns delived 1.2 million shells in 5 hours. By 4th April Albert had been taken.  

During the period of uncertainty for the family in 1918 as to whether Walter was dead or not, bad news piled in: Walter's elder brother George was reported in the Kent Messenger to be injured and in hospital in France; Walter's father was prosecuted at West Malling for failing to send his sister to school on 3rd May, but the case was dismissed.  

I am grateful to John Lambert, Walter's nephew, for help in preparing this note.  Other members of the family still live in Barming.