The Holes brothers of Ardeley in the First World War

Five years ago I posted a note about a possible bomb being dropped somewhere near Walkern by a Zeppelin (DETAILS)  - and I am still waiting for someone to be able to tell me where it fell.

The evidence that something happened came from a postcard between members of the Holes family of Ardeley, and Nick has just contacted me to say that Albert (mentioned on the card) had been killed in the First World War. As a result I have added the following note to the bottom of the page referring to the Zeppelin raid.

Alfred's father, George Holes (1857-1914) died at Ardeley in April 1914 and Alfred married Ethel Maude Baker (1890-1956) in theSouth Stoneham area of Wiltshire in 1915, their only daughter Ivy M Holes (1916-2004?) being born in Wiltshire the following year.Alfred joined the 9th Battalion, London Regiment (419016), as a rifleman and was killed in action on 25 April, 1918, having only arrived in France on 10th April. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Poziers Memorial. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal

During the war three of his brothers were also involved. George joined the Machine Gun Corps (39922) in 1916. James was a Private in the Berks Yeomanry (33929) and later in the Labour Corps (360192). Bertie joined the 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment (14144) and died of wounds in France 29 July 1916.

Walkern Club Football Team 1911/2 - another player identified

Walkern Football Club - Winners of the Greg Cup in 1911/12

Football

Ronald has written in to say that the player in the front row, far right, is William James Smith.

More Information

Please let me know if you can identify any other players

Congratulations to Dr Janet Woodall of Walkern

The Hertfordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England has presented Janet Woodall with the Peterkin Award for her immense contribution to village life. She transformed the village journal, founded the Walkern History Society and made Walkern immeasurably more lively, neighbour- and neighbourhood-conscious.

Major update to Walkern Pages

Janet is in the process of developing  a web site for the Walkern Historical Society and I am sure all visitors to this site will wish it well. My Walkern page had got somewhat untidy and relevant links were sometimes hard to find, so I have used the opportunity to upgrade the Walkern pages on this site.

The main changes are as follows:

• New Walkern "Home page" with menu, with added 1880 description of the village and many new internal and external links.
• Page for St Mary's Church - with long 1911 architectural description added, and new scan of post card view.
• Inns and Public House page relocated and extended.
• Jane Welham (witch) page relocated and extended.
• Minor changes to Walkern Zeppelin and A Chronicle of Small Beer pages.