Walter Read

Bank: London County & Westminster Bank

Place of work: Head Office, London

Died: 1 July 1916

Walter Simmons Read was born on 1 May 1891. In May 1910, shortly after his 19th birthday, he left his job at the London & Lancashire Fire Insurance Company and went to work for London County & Westminster Bank.

As soon as war broke out in August 1914 Read left his job as a clerk at the bank's London head office to go on military service. By 1916 he was a Lance Corporal in the London Regiment, on active service in France. He was killed on 1 July 1916, during an attack on Gommecourt on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was 25 years old.