MULLIN, WALTER
Rank:
Service No:
Date of Death:
Age:
Regiment/Service:
Grave Reference:
Rank:
Service No:
Date of Death:
Age:
Regiment/Service:
Grave Reference:
Text on stone:
Private
3654343
22/09/1944
26
East Lancashire Regiment 1st Bn.
I. F. 7.
He sleeps ‘neath foreign skies far from the ones he loved in a hero’s grave he lies
Additional Information:
Son of Thomas and Eleanor Mullin, of Warrington, Lancashire; husband of Lilian Mullin (nee Woolfenden), of Warrington.
Initially buried at the cemetery T´Hof in Bergeyk.
From the service records of Walter Mullin, the following account can be reconstructed.
Walter Mullin was born on 1 August 1919. In civilian life he worked as a grinder, a skilled industrial occupation common in the North West of England. His physical description lists him as 5 feet 8½ inches tall, with blue eyes and black hair.
He enlisted in the British Army on 22 September 1938, joining the Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment), doing so even before the outbreak of the Second World War. On 22 February 1941, he was formally serving with the South Lancashire Regiment, and on 1 April 1944 he was transferred to the East Lancashire Regiment.
Walter married Lilian Wolfenden on 18 October 1941 in Warrington, during the difficult years of the war.
He was posted to the North-West Europe theatre on 24 June 1944, shortly after the Normandy landings, at a time when British infantry units were heavily engaged in sustained combat as the Allied armies advanced inland from the beaches.
Serving with the East Lancashire Regiment, Walter Mullin was killed in action on 22 September 1944, during the intense fighting of the autumn campaign in North-West Europe.
Walter Mullin was 25 years old at the time of his death. His service reflects that of a pre-war soldier who remained with the Army throughout the conflict and ultimately gave his life during the decisive final phase of the liberation of Western Europe.
