My great uncle, Walter Ernest Pearce, was born in 1881 in the parish of Easton in Gordano, Somerset, to Job and Lydia Pearce. He was the fifth of seven children, although only six survived into adulthood.

Walter joined the 1/2nd South Midlands Field Company, a Territorial Unit of the Royal Engineers which was raised in Bristol and allocated to the 48th (South Midlands) Division.  The units of the 48th Division had just departed for annual summer camp when, on outbreak of war, emergency orders recalled them to the home base. (In the re-organisation of the army, in February 1917, the 1/2nd S.M. was renamed 475th (S.M.) Field Company.) 

The 1/2nd S.M.. Field Company sailed from Southampton, for Le Havre, on 30th March 1915. The work of the Royal Engineers included repairing roads, digging trenches, digging wells and maintaining water supplies, etc. Perhaps one of the worst duties was tunnelling, especially in areas where they encountered quicksand. A hazard that features several times in the 1/2nd S.M. Field Company War Diary.

Walter was awarded the Military Medal and Bar, gazetted on 21st September 1916 and 6th January 1917 respectively. All awards of the M.M. were announced in the London Gazette, but with no citation. The obverse of the medal bears the inscription “For Bravery in the Field”.

Since no citations or recommendations have been found it is not possible to be certain of the actions for which Walter’s M.M. and Bar were awarded. It seems likely that Walter’s first award of the M.M. relates to his activities during the 10 days following the Company’s move to ALBERT, on 14th July 1916, when the 48th Division was engaged in this phase of the Battle of the Somme. During this period the War Diary notes that 11 Other Ranks were wounded. Serjeant Walter Pearce was listed as one of the wounded on the Casualty List issued by the War Office on 14th August 1916. 

The Bar to Walter’s Military Medal, gazetted on 6th January 1917, probably relates to the period 16th to 28th August 1916 when the 48th Division was engaged in the Ovillers/Leipzig Salient Sector with a series of attacks in the Leipzig Salient including the fighting for Mouquet Farm and Constance Trench.

The Battle of Langemarck was part of the Third Battle of Ypres and took place between 16th and 18th August 1917. The 475th Field Company were at a position known as CANAL BANK and in the days prior to the attack were employed in moving stores up to the front. In the War Diary it was noted that they came under very accurate enemy shelling which caused nightly casualties.

Then, on the night of 15th August, the Diary states that there was 1 casualty as they moved up to the BUND. Walter died of his wounds on 16th August 1917, at the 44th Casualty Clearing Station in Brandhoek.

He is buried at Brandhoek New Military Cemetery No. 3, Belgium, grave reference II. D. 8.

Walter is remembered on the War Memorials at St George's Church Easton in Gordano, and Christ Church Pill, Somerset.