Lionel Walter Green

Born: 30 April 1896

Died: 19 April 1917

Rank and Regiment: Private 4609 in the 1st/5th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment

Resting Place: Gaza War Cemetery, Palestine - Plot XXX G 9

Memorials: St. Mary’s, Cranworth, United Kingdom

Lionel was born in Letton on 30 April 1896 to parents George (a teamster) and Sarah Ann Green. In 1901, Lionel (recorded as “Walter” on the census) was 5 and living with his parents and 5 siblings including Bertie (aged 16) who worked as an agricultural labourer, Maud (aged 11), Arthur (aged 11), Alice (aged 8) and Frederick (aged 3).

Sadly, Lionel’s service record has not survived thus we know little about his military career. According to Soldiers Died in the Great War, he enlisted in Dereham and served as a Private with the 1st/5th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment in the Middle East. If he remained with his battalion, he would have fought at the 2nd Battle of Gaza. On 19th April 1917, Lionel was killed in action in Palestine along with more than 1500 other men in his brigade (163rd). He was 11 days shy of his 21st birthday. He is buried at the Gaza War Cemetery in Palestine and his grave reads simply:

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P

His effects of £2 were left to his mother, Sarah.

Gaza War Cemetery, Syria