Walter Whitehead

Bank: The National Bank

Place of work: London Charing Cross branch

Died: 23 September 1919

Walter Henry James Whitehead was born on 1 July 1888, the son of Henry Alexander Whitehead, manager of a leather manufacturing company, and his wife Alice Emily. In October 1905, when he was 17 years old, he went to work for The National Bank.

In September 1916 Whitehead left his job at the bank's London Charing Cross branch to join the army. He was drafted to the Western Front in December 1916, but was brought home to England the following April, suffering from trench fever. He spent about three months in hospital, and returned to France in September 1917. He was transferred to Italy in November 1917, and in 1918 promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal.

In October 1918 Whitehead sustained a gunshot wound from which he never recovered. He was transferred to hospital in England in March 1919, and after developing numerous complications died on 23 September 1919. He was 31 years old and left a widow, Christina, and a young son, Reginald, born in 1916.

Walter Whitehead is commemorated on a bank war memorial at the Royal Bank of Scotland London Cavendish Square branch.