Walter Kenneth PITCHER

1891 - 1917  (26 years)

• Name	Walter Kenneth PITCHER
  Born	6 Apr 1891	Old Bonaventure, Trinity North, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, Canada
  Gender	Male
  _UID	2B5CA362F2E4D611B6E8F54F3BB1063552A2
  Died	20 Nov 1917	BEAUMONT-HAMEL (NEWFOUNDLAND) MEMORIAL ; Somme, France
  Person ID	I243	Penny of Newfoundland
  Last Modified	1 Jul 2021

  
  

  Father	Archibald James PITCHER,   b. 20 Jun 1865, Old Bonaventure, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, Canada ,   d. pre-1921, Old Bonaventure, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, Canada  (Age 55 years)
  Mother	Frances Elizabeth VERGE,   b. 30 Sep 1866, Old Bonaventure, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, Canada ,   d. 1949, Halifax, Halifax Co., Nova Scotia, Canada  (Age 82 years)
  _UID	235CA362F2E4D611B6E8F54F3BB106354A22
  Family ID	F5	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Son of Archibald and Fanny Pitcher, of Old Bonaventure, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Commemorated on Page 100 of the Newfoundland Book of Remembrance. Request a copy of this page. Military Service: Service Number: 2115 Age: 28 Force: Army Unit: Royal Newfoundland Regiment Citation(s): Military Medal Honours and Awards: Military Medal Cemetery: BEAUMONT-HAMEL (NEWFOUNDLAND) MEMORIAL ; Somme, France Grave Reference: N/A Location: The largest of the battlefield parks established in memory of Newfoundlanders who fell in the First World War is Beaumont Hamel, nine kilometres directly north of the town of Albert. In BEAUMONT HAMEL MEMORIAL PARK, which was officially opened by Earl Haig on June 7, 1925, the monument of the great bronze caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, stands on the highest point overlooking St John's Road and the slopes beyond. At the base of the statue three tablets of bronze carry the names of over 800 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marine who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. In the lodge, which houses the reception room for visitors to the Park, a bronze plaque, unveiled in 1961 by the Hon. Joseph Smallwood, Premier of Newfoundland, lists the Battle Honours won by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and pays tribute to its fallen. The park is one of the few in France or Belgium where the visitor can see a Great War battlefield much as it was. The actual trenches are still there and something of the terrible problem of advancing over such country can be appreciated by the visitor. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, no unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded was taken next day, only 68 answered their names. The final figures that revealed the virtual annihilation of the Battalion gave a grim count of 233 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.