Walter Ryde

Bank: Westminster Bank

Place of work: Bournemouth branch

Died: 20 April 1945

Walter Frederick Ryde was born on 12 December 1922, the son of Walter and Nellie Emma Maud Ryde. He joined the temporary wartime staff of Westminster Bank at its Bournemouth branch in July 1940.

He later left the bank to go on war service, rising to the rank of Lieutenant in the Royal Armoured Corps, fighting with the 8th Hussars. During an attack on Elstorf in Germany on 20 April 1945 his tank was hit. Whilst jumping to escape he was shot and killed by a sniper. Word was later received that, had he lived, he would have been sent to England for further training. Fellow soldiers brought his body to the church at Elstorf where he was temporarily laid to rest before being moved to a war graves cemetery in Becklington. Lieutenant Walter Frederick Ryde was the last of the 8th Hussars to die in the Second World War. He was 22 years old.