210526 Sergeant Walter Wallace Hancock

210526 (210525) Sergeant Walter Wallace Hancock was born in 1898 in Crewe, he was the only son of Walter and Elizabeth Hancock (nee Holland) Walter and Elizabeth married in All Saints, Odd Rode on the 2^nd November 1896 they lived at “Lilac Cottage” Mow Cop. Walter was the grandchild of Luke and Pauline Oakes Hancock of Primitive Street, Mow Cop. On the 1901 census Walter and his father lived with Walters’s grandmother in Mow Cop, then on the 1911 Census Walter was still living with her and his uncle in Primitive Street, Mow Cop.

There are no surviving service records for Walter; all we know is that he enlisted in Hanley in 1915 as a Private in the North Staffordshire Regiment his first Regimental number was 5087, then he was promoted to Acting Sergeant and issued with a new Regimental number 201526 he first went to France on the 17^th December 1915, Walter died of wounds on the 14^th September 1918 in France, he is buried in Lapugnoy Military Cemetery.

There is a little confusion over Walters final Regimental number, his medal index card records have him as 210526, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) have him as 210525.       

Walter is the only WW1 soldier commemorated in the Primitive Methodist Church; there is the Brass Plaque and a photo of him in uniform. On the Photo it reads

“In sweet memory of Walter Wallace Hancock Sergt, 8^th  Batt, North Staffs Regt, who died September 14^th 1918 of wounds received in action and is buried in the British Military Cemetery Lapugnoy, France aged 20 years “ Be thou faithful unto death”

There used to be another photo of him as a boy in the church, now missing, which said:

“ In sweet memory of Walter Wallace Hancock (late of Lilac Cottage, Mow Cop)

  A former devoted scholar of this Sunday School, and a pious member of the Junior Society class, he died September 14^th 1918, aged 20 years  “Be Ye Also Ready”

Walter is also remembered on the family grave in St Thomas’s churchyard.