James WALLING

10 August 1917

BARNOLDSWICK – A MYSTERY CLEARED UP

About three months ago we gave a circumstantial report (with photograph) of the death of Pte. David Walling, Northumberland Fusiliers, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walling, 20, Clifford Street, who had been killed in action in France. Pte. Walling was first reported missing (April [February] 11th), but shortly afterwards a letter was received from a Barnoldswick comrade, Pte. W. Smith [died of wounds, 6 May 1917], giving particulars of the time and place of his death, which, in the absence of official news, the family felt constrained to accept as authentic. After a lapse of several weeks, however, the hopes of the family were suddenly revived by the receipt of a telegram signed ‘David’ which [had] been sent from St. Pancras, from which it was inferred that the sender might be expected home on the morrow. The telegram, somewhat ambiguously worded, was addressed to a resident in a neighbouring street, whose wife, evidently unacquainted with the sender, jumped to the conclusion that it was intended for a married sister of Pte. Walling (who bore the same surname as the recipient), and residing in the same street, to whom the telegram was ultimately given. Quite naturally the parents clung to the hope that the report of his death might prove erroneous and that they would have the supreme pleasure of welcoming their son back from the dead. Thus for two or three whole days were they kept in a ferment of expectation and uncertainty, meeting every train, but alas! ‘no David.’ After a further period of agonizing suspense, and ready to clutch at every alternative, the parents communicated with another son who is in training near London, asking him to make inquiries, on the off-chance that David might have been unavoidably detained in London or might be suffering from temporary loss of memory. The consent of the military authorities was readily granted on the position being explained to them, and for two days the young man prosecuted a diligent search round the military hospitals and Red Cross agencies, with no better result. At length, however, the tangle has been unravelled by an official announcement from the War office confirming the death of Pte. Walling as having occurred on April 11th. He was 25 years of age and married. The case has naturally aroused a good deal of local interest and the family have been the recipients of numerous sympathetic letters and enquiries.

On Wednesday Mr. and Mrs. Walling received a letter from a Barnoldswick comrade in the same regiment, stating that their younger son, Pte. James Walling, Duke of Wellington’s, had been slightly wounded by shrapnel in the right knee, after being in France six months.

30 August 1918

BARNOLDSWICK – Good News

On Sunday Mr. and Mrs. F. Walling, 20 Clifford Street, Barnoldswick, were re-assured on receiving a postcard from their son, Private Jas. Walling, West Riding Regiment, stating that he was a prisoner in Germany and quite well. Only two days previously they had received an official intimation that he had been missing since 22nd July. Mr. and Mrs. Walling have had one son killed in the war.

28 March 1919

BARNOLDSWICK – PRISONER’S DEATH IN GERMANY

After being reported ‘missing’ since last July, news has come through this week to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Walling, 20 Clifford Street, Barnoldswick, that their son, Pte. James Walling, West Riding Regt., died on the 17th November at Riosa, Germany, from influenza and intestinal catarrh. He was 21 years of age. This is the second bereavement Mr. and Mrs. Walling have sustained during the war, an elder son, Pte. David Walling, N.F., being killed at Armentieres in February, 1917. Pte. Tom Walling (eldest son) is in hospital in France recovering from pneumonia.