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FREDERICK MAXWELL WALTON, was the
elder son of Mr & Mrs Frank Walton of Parkdale, Wolverhampton.
He came to the school as a small boy in September 1908, and remained
until July 1914. The next two years
were spent in practical occupation at an engineering works and study at the
Technical School, and in August 1916, he joined the Army by entering the
Mechanical Transport Branch of the Army Service Corps.
Two further years were passed in training and service at various home
stations, in the course of which he was put into the 11th Officer
Cadet Battalion. Thence he obtained
his commission and in September 1918, he went out to France as Second Lieutenant
in the Worcester Regiment. His
death took place in a military hospital at Cherbourg on February 21st
1919, as the result of pneumonia, following influenza, the original attack being
due, it can hardly be doubted, to the hardships of a long journey in a cattle
truck from Calais to Cherbourg in charge of troops.
With his burial in the neighbouring Tourlaville Cemetery ended at 21 the
earthly pilgrimage of one who was loved by all who knew him, a boy of singular
amiability, one whose temper was never known to be ruffled at home or at school,
and one to whom bearing and manners gave a winning personality. For his cricket he will long be remembered.
He was a member of the Wolverhampton Cricket Club, was captain of the Old
Wulfrunians XI against the school in 1917, and in the same year played for his
regiment at Aldershot. A good judge who knew him well writes as follows of
Walton’s cricket – ‘Perhaps his keenest interest was for cricket.
Cricket was to him more than a game; it was a devotion.
While still a young boy at school he had the sense to recognise that the
formation of a sound style was the primal need, even if for a while scoring was
low and slow. As soon as he left he
began to reap the fruit of this policy of self-denial.
He combined sound defence with free and fast scoring even against good
bowling; and there can be no doubt that he was destined for distinction in the
world of cricket. The game has lost
a fine player and a fine sportsman”.
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