When a life has positively touched the hearts and lives of others it is anything but ordinary. 

Wendy shares the lived experience of her maternal great grandparents.

There is a family grave at Ford Park Cemetery where a young boy was reunited with his beloved parents.

Walter Hill tragically died at the tender age of 10 on the 23rd of August in 1929 from a fractured skull, an injury he sustained when he accidentally fell through a skylight window on a stores building on the Great Western Dock in Plymouth.

A newspaper report implied that it being a biscuit store may have explained the reason for Walter being there before his fall but his sister Kit vividly remembered what happened on that fateful day. Walter went out with his younger brother Harry and they were being chased by local lads looking for trouble so he climbed up to the store roof to escape from them.

Walter was one of 10 children in the Hill household. His mother was Ellen and he was named after his father. Walter Hill senior was born on New Year’s Day in 1891 in the New Barracks accommodation on Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

In March 1911 he married 18 year old Ellen Cotter in Plymouth. 

In 1915 he enlisted as a tunnelling boy with the Royal Engineers. His working role before the war was as a miner. In the First World War Walter tunnelled under enemy lines in France so that explosives could be used to destroy enemy gun posts. 

He was captured and endured the hardship of being a Prisoner of War. (Walter is seated on the right in this photo).

Family say that on return from the front-line Walter didn't speak about what he witnessed but what is known is that he came under gas attacks and also had the terrifying experience of being buried alive when a tunnel collapsed on him and he was pulled out by his comrades.

This is why his wife and son were laid to rest with a burial committal at Ford Park Cemetery but he was cremated and his remains were interred in the same grave. He never wanted to be buried again such was the horror he survived. 

On his return to England in 1918 Walter received a personal letter from King George V.

The letter address to Sapper Hill (Number 147625) read:

“The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from miseries and hardship which you have endured with so much patience and courage.

During those many months of trial, the early rescue of our gallant officers and men from the cruelties of their captivity has been uppermost in our thoughts.

We are thankful that this longed for day has arrived and that back in the old country you will be able once more to enjoy the happiness of a home and to see good days among those who anxiously look for your return.”

I hope Walter was able to read this letter because his wife Ellen couldn't read or write. Her signature on official documents was marked by an X which indicated illiteracy. 

In later life Walter was a labourer for Coles and a flyman - moving curtains and stage scenery - in the Palace Theatre. He drank at the Bulls Head public house in King Street and family remember him as being earnest, strict and slim in build. 

Ellen was reunited with her son when she passed on the 5th of May 1962, aged 68, and her husband when he died on the 23rd of January in 1973, aged 82. 

If you would like to share an interesting story about a family member whose final resting place is in Ford Park Cemetery we would love to hear from you. Please leave your contact details with the cemetery office.