Walter William Moulding

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Grave/Memorial:  		Moulding, Walter W

1882, Woking, Surrey

Alfred and Lucy (née Attfield)

"E" Company Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps (Motors)

40236

Sergeant

27 April 1917, Alexandria, age 34

Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt: D. 108. 		   

Biography:
Walter William Moulding was born in Knaphill, Woking, in 1884. He was the son and third child of Alfred, a butcher, and Lucy Annie (née Attfield). He
had four brothers and a sister.

Walter’s brother, Sidney Dormer Moulding, and two of his cousins are also commemorated on the St John’s Memorial.

Walter presumably attended Knaphill School. After leaving school, Walter joined the post office as a clerk. Within two months he had left and joined the
LSW Railway, also as a clerk.



On 27 August 1914, Walter volunteered for military service. He joined the Royal Fusiliers as a private and was deployed, with the 10th Battalion, to
the Western Front, disembarking on 30 July 1915. He was promoted up to Sergeant before transferring to the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) – the Heavy
Section (later Tank Corps) was formed on 1 May 1916.

“E” Company Heavy Branch of the MGC was formed for service in Palestine and it was to this unit that Walter was transferred.

Walter William Moulding was injured during the Second Battle of Gaza. ‘The battle was resumed on April 19th and the surviving seven tanks all took part. Of the seven
tanks, one fell into a gully, another was destroyed by a direct hit from a field gun while a third, breaking one of its tracks, was caught in a redoubt, afterwards named ‘tank redoubt’, with
some British infantry, all captured by the Turks. There were some successful actions too, but the battle was called off and written off as another failure. The Turks proved to be tenacious
defenders, not unduly spooked by the tanks although they’d never encountered them before.’

Walter died of his wounds on 29 April 1917 at 15th General Hospital, Alexandria, Egypt. He is buried, in grave D. 108, within the Alexandria (Hadra) War
Memorial Cemetery.



In March 1915, the base of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was transferred to Alexandria from Mudros and the city became a camp and hospital centre for Commonwealth
and French troops. Among the medical units established there were the 17th, 19th, 21st, 78th and 87th General Hospitals and No 5 Indian Hospital.

This cemetery was begun in April 1916 when it was realised that the cemetery at Chatby would not
be large enough. Most of the burials were made from the Alexandria hospitals, but a number of graves
of December 1917 were due to the loss of the troop transports "Aragon" and "Osmanieh" which were
sunk by torpedo and mine as they entered the port. The cemetery continued in use until December
1919 but later, some graves were brought in from small burial grounds in the western desert, Maadia
and Rosetta. 		     
Walter is also commemorated on the memorial tablet within Knaphill Holy Trinity Church.