Walter Edwin Llewellyn Hughes – Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 5th/6th Battalion

Private Walter Edwin Llewellyn Hughes – Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 5^th/6^th Battalion

Limited Surviving Information

Walter Edwin Llewellyn Hughes

Some soldiers left only a faint trace in the surviving records, and Walter Edwin Llewellyn Hughes is one such case. Most of what is known about him comes from official military documentation.

Family Background

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Walter was the son of Mark Llewellyn Hughes and Mary Catherine Hughes, of Heathfield, Pelsall, Staffordshire.

Military Service

Walter enlisted as a Private, first serving with the South Staffordshire Regiment before later transferring to the 5^th/6^th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), a unit formed from the amalgamation of the 5th and 6th Territorial Battalions in early 1916. The battalion served with the 19^th Brigade, 33^rd Division, on the Western Front.

Death and Commemoration

Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects

The Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects record that Walter’s death was presumed on 20^th May 1917. At this time, the battalion was serving in the Arras sector during the final phase of the Battle of Arras, which had begun in April 1917. Throughout May, the 5th/6th Cameronians were engaged in the hazardous routine of trench warfare: manning front-line and support trenches, carrying out night patrols, repairing fortifications under fire, and enduring frequent German shelling, trench-mortar bombardments, and sniper activity. Casualties were common even without a major assault taking place.

The notation that Walter’s death was “presumed” suggests he was reported missing in action, likely during one of these periods of intense shelling or localised fighting in which recovery of the dead was often impossible. With no known grave, he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France, which honours those who fell in the Arras region and whose final resting places remain unknown.