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07/05/1897 - 18/07/1916

Place of birth: Rangoon, Burma
Last known address in Bromley: 3 Scotts Lane

Military information

Regiment/Service: Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force
Battalion/Ship: 19 Reserve Squadron
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Number: Unknown

Family information

Parents: Walter William Gordon & Constance Mary Beatson (nee Montresor)
Parents' occupation: East India Merchant
Siblings: Roger Stewart Montresor, Claude Gordon
Relatives on War Memorial: BEATSON, R.S.M.

Census information

1901
Address: 7 Montpelier Road, Ealing
1911
Address: Stubbington House School, Fareham, Hants

Extra details

Walter was the youngest of Walter and Constance's three children. His father, Walter, worked for Messrs. Bulloch Brothers and Company in Rangoon. Following his death in 1897 the family returned to England eventually settling in Shortlands.

He was educated at Stubbington House, Fareham, Hants and Uppingham from 1912, leaving the latter in December 1915 he obtained a commission in the R.F.C. in May 1916.

Walter went to flying school at Oxford and from there to Brooklands. On 18th July, on arrival at Hounslow for a higher course of instruction, he was on a flight with Captain Charles d'Arcy Edmund Wentworth Reeve when their Henri Farman suddenly side-slipped from about 200ft, nose-dived into the ground and burst into flames.

Also remembered on his grave stone is his eldest brother Roger who had died 16 days earlier. They are both also on the war memorial for St Martin's church Bedford.

Thank you to Uppingham School Archives for their assistance.