A Hills Nicholson brother. This is possibly Walter (alternative is Bruce)
Walter was the 5th child of Alfred James Nicholson and his wife Letitia Marion. He was born in 1892 in Wokingham. His parents lived at the time in Glebelands, his father was a wealthy stock broker and the family had 8 staff at home. His grandfather, Edward Hills Nicholson was a major investor in the invention and production of linoleum
Local historian Jim Bell provides us with Walter’s service history:
‘Captain Walter Hills Nicholson had a distinguished career in the First World War. He joined the Royal Fusiliers and was awarded the Military Cross. The following report was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette of the 18th July 1918—
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Owing to the rapidity of an enemy attack he and his company headquarters were cut off from the company. Realising this, he at once made a determined effort to reach them, and after a sharp hand-to-hand fight, in which several of the enemy were killed, and he himself wounded, succeeded in doing so. By his gallant action he was able to rally his company.
News of Walter’s death in 1943. He survived the First World War, but not the Second.
He survived the war and married Ethel Francis Baird. They had a daughter, Nan Baird, who married Flying Officer, Frederick Barr of the Royal Australian Air Force at St. Blaise Church, Milton, Berkshire in August 1945. Walter joined the R.A.F and served in the Second World War as a flight lieutenant and was killed in 1943’.
Captain and winner of the Military Cross with the Royal Fusiliers, Walter survived the First World War. As a Flight Lieutenant in the Second World War, he was killed on the 15th February 1943 aged 50. He is buried at Harwell Cemetery, Oxfordshire.
Rank: Flight Lieutenant. Service No: 86533
Date of Death: 15/02/1943. Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Grave Reference Grave 543. Cemetery HARWELL CEMETERY. Location at Google Maps
Historical Information
During the two world wars, the United Kingdom became an island fortress used for training troops and launching land, sea and air operations around the globe. There are more than 170,000 Commonwealth war graves in the United Kingdom, many being those of servicemen and women killed on active service, or who later succumbed to wounds. Others died in training accidents, or because of sickness or disease. The graves, many of them privately owned and marked by private memorials, will be found in more than 12,000 cemeteries and churchyards.
Harwell Cemetery contains 66 Second World War burials, most of them forming a war graves plot, the majority of them made from the Royal Air Force Station at Harwell. There is also one First World War burial in the cemetery, and one non-war service grave.
High Close, Wokingham Berks. 1911 census