Description
An Unusual 1914 Star Trio to the Last Surviving Veteran of the Town of Alsager, Cheshire awarded to Serjeant Walter James Hollinshead 8th Divisional Ammunition Park, Army Service Corps comprising, 1914 Star, (M1-5668 Pte W.M. Hollingshead. A.S.C.), 1914-1920 British War and Victory Medals, (M1-5668 Sjt. W.J. Hollinshead.A.S.C.), contemporarily mounted for wear, very fine
Walter James Hollinshead was born in Pattingham, Staffordshire on the 3rd February 1890. By 1911 the family were living in Crewe Road, Alsager, Walter’s father, James, was an agricultural labourer and Walter was a motor mechanic.
Walter’s Medal Index Card shows that he landed in France on the 9th November 1914 and was posted to 75 Company Mechanised Motor Transport working as a motor engineer at the 8th Division Ammunition Park. Walter was responsible for vehicle repairs for the lorries that transported ammunition to the Front.
Walter was in France for Christmas 1914. In 1915 Walter married Alice in St Mary’s Church Alsager. He rose to the rank of Serjeant and was demobbed in 1919 and returned to live in Alsager as a motor engineer. He opened Alsager’s first garage, Holland & Hollinshead. He was an ex-servicemen representative on the Alsager War Memorial Committee in 1919. Walter died in 1985 aged 95, the last surviving Alsager man from the Great War to die.
He is commemorated as such on the Imperial War Museum’s “Lives of the Great War” website.
Sold with copy Medal Index Card, copy photograph of Walter, copy Medal Rolls, death notice and IWM entry information.
