PRIVATE WALTER MAURICE LAKE
5TH ROYAL IRISH LANCERS
24TH MAY 1915 AGE 25
BURIED: YPRES TOWN CEMETERY EXTENSION, BELGIUM
In 1911 Walter Maurice Lake was a laundry vanman working at a steam laundry in Barrow-in-Furness, married with one daughter. From his headstone inscription I would suggest that he was a volunteer who responded to the recruiting posters' call to arms.
He was killed in the Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge. There is no individual account of his death but at 2.45am on 24 May 1915, the Germans launched a massive artillery bombardment and chlorine gas attack on the British lines, which broke to the north and south of Bellewaarde Lake. The British launched a counter-attack at 11 o'clock that night but it was a disaster and resulted in very heavy casualties.