Remembering Lt Col Walter Loring, 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
02 Mar 2015
Killed on Saturday, 24 October 1914 during the 1st Battle of Ypres, Belgium, age 46
In August, the University published a special website, World War 1 Centenary, to commemorate the centenary of the start of the Great War.
During the next four years, the website will pay a monthly tribute to a student or member of staff who lost their lives in WW1, 100 years after they died.
This month, it features Walter Latham Loring, who was born on 3 April 1868. As a boy, he lived with his family at Ewshot where the family was held in high esteem. He lost his mother and sister when the steamer in which they were travelling to Australia to visit one of his brothers sank.
Following an education at Fauconberge School, Beccles and Marlborough College, he obtained a scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In August 1898 he married Violet Marshall, with whom he had seven daughters and three sons.
He joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in March 1889. He was promoted to Lieutenant in December 1890, Captain in April 1898 and Major in February 1904. In 1908 he was the first Adjutant to the Manchester University Officer Training Corps (O.T.C) that was formed as part of the army reforms that created the Territorial Force. He later moved to the Birmingham and Bristol OTC. In April 1914 he was given command of 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
Although the University has basic biographical details for all of the fallen, their wider stories have often been lost. If you have any documents or images relating to the part played in WW1 by former students, members of staff or the University itself, please contact:
- James Hopkins, University Historian and Heritage Manager, on 63075 or james.hopkins@manchester.ac.uk