Rank: Private / Sergeant
Regiment: 8th Battalion, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
Wife: Mrs Ethel Butler
Parents: Mr John J & Mrs Mary Butler
Address: 47 Bohemia Road, St Leonards
Other Info: According to CWGC, Wallace was killed in action on 3rd September 1916 aged 36. He is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 5d. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
The Friends of Hastings Cemetery website provides this additional information from the Hastings Observer; “In our last issue we referred briefly to the death of Sergeant W. Butler, second son of Mr J. J. Butler of Hastings which took place while in action. An officer, in a letter to the widow, says he was sniped crossing an open space. ‘’He was’,” says the writer of the letter, ‘’largely responsible for the splendid attack we made that day. I cannot speak too highly for the splendid work he has always done, whether in the trenches or behind the line. In a previous attack some three weeks ago he was very strongly recommended for bravery in the German trench, and was certainly responsible for the capture of a machine gun and several prisoners. We shall never forget him, and my great fear is that we shall never replace him. He died most nobly, and was buried with due honours, and a cross was erected to his memory near the spot where he fell.’’
Published: October 1914 & January 1915
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