WALTER DOUGLAS AGER
From May through to September 2026, Andrew will be fulfilling his dream to hike the iconic Land’s End to John O’Groats! You are all warmly invited to follow Andrew’s epic journey on his Facebook page, “Andrew Beal LEJOG” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577588795730
As Andrew hikes the 1,300+ miles, he will raise funds for the Ipswich War Memorial Project to help finance our future exhibitions and research of the brave Ipswich men and women who lost their lives in conflict. If you would like to make a small donation, please click on the link: https://gofund.me/5d4a50570
Thank you for your love and support. Andrew & Helen – I.W.M.P.
Born: 1892, Ipswich.
Died: 12th October 1916; age 24; KiA. at the Battle of Transloy
Residence: 21, Alan Road, Ipswich.
Occupation: Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, Orwell Works, Ipswich.
Enlistment Location: Ipswich.
Rank: Lance Corporal; Service Number: 43226
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 7th Battalion.
Formerly 865, Suffolk Cyclist Regiment.
Medals Awarded: Victory & British War.
Memorial Reference:
Pier & Face 1C & 2A,
Somme,
France.
Relatives Notified & Address: Youngest son of Emma Ager, of 21, Alan Road, Ipswich and brother of Mr. Edward Ernest Ager, of ‘Bismillah’, Locarno Road, Ipswich.
CENSUS
1901 21, Alan Road, Ipswich.
Walter was 8 years old and living with his widowed mother & siblings.
Emma Ager (nee Thurman), 56, born Mellis, Suffolk.
Stanley Ager, 20, an Iron Moulder, born Ipswich.
Agnes Ager, 19, a Wholesales Confectioners Assistant, born Great Bentley, Suffolk.
1911 21, Alan Road, Ipswich.
Walter was 18 years old, a Carpenter. He was living with his widowed mother.
Emma, 65.
Walter’s father was Alfred Edward Ager, born 1848, in Little Livermere, Suffolk – died 1892, in Ipswich.
Soldiers’ Effects to Emma Ager – mother, and Horace Victor Ager – brother, of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Walter is also remembered on the war memorial at Holy Trinity Church, Ipswich, and on the Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, Orwell Works, war memorial. Now sited at The Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk.
E.A.D.T. – Friday, 2nd November 1900 – At the Ipswich Police Court, on Thursday, 1st November, 9 year old Walter’s mother, Emma Ager, of Alan Road, appeared before Alfred Wrinch, John May, Esq., and Samuel Richard Anness, Esq., in answer to an application by the Chief Constable of the Ipswich Borough Police Colonel Hickman Rose Russell for an order to be made towards the maintenance of her son, Walter Ager in an industrial school. Emma Ager showed that she had to rely upon the maintenance of her own children, she being too ill to earn money for herself. Colonel Russell said he brought the case forward simply as a matter of form. The Bench made no order.
On the 11th October, the Suffolk Regiment 7th Battalion, having been allotted its task in the Battle of Transloy (already in progress) received the orders to take part in an attack on “Bayonet Trench” and “Luisenhof farm”, which had been fixed for the 12th. Going in overnight, they were heavily shelled until they occupied their assembly trenches just before dawn. All the company headquarters were in a large dugout in the sunken road leading to Guedecourt wood. After passing a reasonably quiet forenoon, the battalion set out across the open at 2 p.m., coming immediately under a very heavy crossfire of every description, but mainly from machine guns and automatic rifles. Close to the German trenches, the attack was held up by machine gun nests and wire, and waves, unable to get any further, lay down. At this juncture, remarkable bravery was displayed by several officers, non-commissioned officers, and men. Luet. Eagle is reported to have died fighting in the German first line, into which he had forced an entrance alone. 2nd Lieut. Marshall, in a shell-hole with his servant and a sergeant, was bombed and sniped all afternoon, and later killed. They were close up against the German wire but refused to go back. Captain Isham, badly wounded during the afternoon, spent the night in a shell-hole, being visited by Lieut. Bowen (himself wounded), who remained with him till dark.
The full story of this sad day, on which the 7th Battalion sustained over 500 casualties, has never been described in print. Let it suffice to say that all ranks, especially the reinforcements which recently arrived from the 6th Cyclist Battalion (becoming the 7th), acquitted themselves admirably.
The failure of the attack was due in some measure to the fact that the enemy’s wire had been only partially destroyed and that the barrage during the launching of the attack was ineffective.
Before zero hour, Captain Leith-Hay-Clarke had been twice buried by shells. Of the fourteen officers who went over the top on this occasion, all became casualties.
For his part in the action, Rev. A.E Cousins, chaplain to the 7th Battalion, received the Military Cross.
Lieut. Bowen, wounded for the second time in three months, was also awarded the Military Cross.
Transcript from “The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927 by Lieut. Col. C.C.R Murphy.”
Suffolk Regiment, 7th Battalion:
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