Geoffrey Stephen Walley

Born: 17 April 1892

Died: 20 August 1916

Rank and Regiment: Lieutenant 5th and 2nd Battalions King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

Resting Place: Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, France

Memorials: St. George’s, Hardingham, United Kingdom

Geoffrey was the only son of the Rector of Hardingham. He won scholarships to Haileybury and to Clare College, Cambridge, where amongst other things he was a “Wrangler” (obtaining first class honours in Mathematics) and a keen sportsman – he rowed in his College’s first boat, and won a half-mile handicap race in 1912. He was noted as a debater; the Clare College Archives record him as “one of the most frequent speakers” and as speaking on Professionalism in Sport and on The Right of Every Man to Get Drunk (which was, apparently, declared sacred).

He joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps on the outbreak of war, and was rapidly promoted to Lieutenant. He was wounded twice in 1915, the second time seriously. He was invalided home in June 1916 but rejoined his regiment the following month, and was killed in action at High Wood, during the Battle of the Somme, on 20 August 1916. His Commanding Officer wrote of him:

“He was shot while steadying his men during a counter German attack which was successfully repulsed owing very largely to his efforts. He was well known among us as a most gallant and cool headed officer ‘under fire’ and he showed himself as such on that day”.

He was engaged to his cousin Ruth Kinsey, whose great-niece has written:

“After he was killed in the Great War, she never forgot him and she never married”.

He is buried at Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension. The inscription on his tombstone doubtless reflects the hopes his parents had for him. It reads:

HAILEYBURY 1905-1911. CLARE COLL. CAMB. 1911-1914.

The GRU cross which originally marked Geoffrey Walley’s grave (giving his name as “Lieut B. S. Walley”) has been returned to Hardingham Church and is displayed there. He is also commemorated on the War Memorials of Warmfield-cum-Heath, Wakefield, the parish of his birth, and Clare College, Cambridge, and there is a memorial tablet to him in the sanctuary of Hardingham Church.

A brass shell case was retrieved from the battlefield at High Wood and presented to his parents in his memory. It is displayed in Hardingham Church.