213196 Sgt. Walter John Tindall MM.British Army 16th (Boys Brigade) Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps from:Windsor, Berks., (d.17th Apr 1918) Wally Tindall was one of my mother's maternal uncles. He was much older than Mum - she was only aged 7, when he died of his wounds at the 62nd CCS [Bandaghem]. When Mum died, and I had to triage her papers, I found a sheaf of "letters from the front" that he'd managed to find time to write to her, right from his enlistment, up to a few days before the German attack of April, 1918.
I've never managed to track down the Citation for his Military Medal, and our family would be very grateful to have a copy of the Text. He survived the hell of High Wood in July and August 1916, and I suspect he may have earned his MM in those Actions, but it would be nice to know for sure. I managed to track what his Company was doing in Neuve Eglise in late March and early April, but have never managed to get sight of the war Diary for the Composite Battalion.
Wally got ordered to join after losing touch with his officers during C Company's retreat from Neuve Eglise after the German breakthrough there. However, he was wounded as a member of that hastily-assembled scratch Composite Battn, when he was fatally wounded in the hastily-dug Trenches below Locre Chateau in the 2nd week of April, 1918.
I think that Battalion was mainly composed of elements of the 2nd Worcesters, and the 1/9th HLI, and the 16th KRRC, with anyone else who could fire a rifle and who had been separated from their Units in the retreat ahead of the German combat teams.
So, I would dearly love to get my hands of copies of the Composite Battalion's War Diary for those few critical last days of Sgt. Tindall's life. From the info. I have, Sgt. Tindall was not so severely wounded as to be thought beyond Cas-Evac; and the fact that he survived to reach 62nd CCS 16 kms away suggests to me that he either died of shock or infection. His Service record only states "DoW, 62nd CCS".
If anyone either has a copy of that Composite Battalion's April 1918 War Diary - or knows where I would find it and under what search title, I'd be very pleased to hear from them.
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