Rededication Private John Walton

Rededication Private John Walton - Zillebeke - 21/05/2025

Please find below some pictures of the rededication service which took place on Wednesday 21 May 2025 at Perth Cemtery (China Wall) at Zillebeke. Private John Walton, 8th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment, now has a headstone with his name on. Untill now he had been buried as an unknown soldier.

John Walton was born in Birmingham in 1895, the fourth of 9 children born to John Walton, a confectioner, and his wife Elizabeth.

John arrived in France with 8^th Battalion Staffordshire Regiment, landing in Boulogne on 14 July 1915. Within days they were in Belgium, and by 27 July they were in trenches at Reninghelst - a few miles south-west of Ypres. The battalion stayed in the Ypres area until the following January when they finally earned a few weeks away from the front, re-organising and recuperating near St Omer. During this time they also undertook training in bombing, signalling, machine gunning etc.

On 6 february the battalion made for the Ypres area again, and that same evening they took over trenches at Verbrandenmolen tot the south-east of Ypres. The Battalion War Diary records daily bombardments and shelling, as well as news of gas being used in the line to the north of their position, but generally low casualty numbers until the 13 February when the bombardment intensified and the enemy attack began. The next few days involved repeated attacks and counterattacks, with brief lulls whilst the respective sides each tried to consolidate their gains, until the battalion was relieved on the morning of 17 February. John was one of 38 men of the 8^th Bn to die during the 10 days between entering the line and being relieved, during which time there was a direct shell hit on a British dressing station, as well as a failed attack on the enemy lines. Following the war, more than half of the men killed had no known grave, and most were added to the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing in Ypres, when it opened in 1927.

John's Walton's name was not added to the Menin Gate - and in fact he was not commemorated as a casualty of the war until 2010 when a case of non-commemoration was submitted to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for consideration. Upon consideration of the evidence they found that John was eligible for commemoration and his name was added to the Menin Gate later that year.

In August 1919 the body of a British soldier was recovered in close proximity to some buildings near Verbrandenmolen. No cross or marker was found to indicate that the casulaty had been formally buried, but the remains were positively identified as belong to Pte J Walton 13923 of the 8^th Bn South Staffordshire Regiment thanks to an identity disc found with them.

These remains were re-buried at Perth (China Wall) Cemetery and the early records show that the grave was initially considered to be that of Pte Walton. Subsequently however this information was struck through, and the grave was re-described as that of an unknown British soldier.

Although the exact details are uncertain, it is likely that when the effects branch of the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries came to trace the details from the ID disc to match them to a Battalion Ledger a problem was uncovered - the details associated with the grave - Pte J Walton, no. 13923, 8^th Battalion Staffordshire Regiment - did not match a known fatality of the war. Unfortunately John's service number has been mis-recorded in the Battalion Ledger as 14923.

Instead, the mis-recorded information was matched to Pte I Walton, no. 14923, 8^th Bn East Lancashire Regiment - who survived the war. His surname and number were a match for the disc, and the letters used to denote his first initial, and that of his Regiment, could easily be misread. Since the casualty could not possibly be Pte I. Walton, he was buried as an unknown soldier. John meanwhile dropped out of the Commission records, and went entirely uncommemorated.

Thanks to the work of the original researcher who suggested that John should be commemorated back in 2010, and the work oif another researcher who submitted evidence about the identity of the unknown Staffordshire soldier buried at Perth (China Wall) Cemetery, today for the first time in nearly 110 years, we are able to commemorate John properly, at his final resting place, reuniting his physical remains with his name, and rededicating his grave accordingly.