"MAJOR WALTER HARRY NICHOLS, 8TH BATTN. PRINCE ALBERT'S SOMERSET LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED AT MUNICH, OCTOBER 15TH, 1915, FROM WOUNDS RECEIVED AT LOOS, SEPTEMBER 26TH. AGED 43. At the School 1887—88 (Hill Side). Maj. W. H. Nichols was the fifth son of Charles Nichols, of Dunedin, New Zealand, and came to Tonbridge in 1887 from Mr. Bartholomew's, Park House, Reading. He was here for only a short time, and then went to Christ's College, Christchurch, New Zealand. In 1891 he returned to England and went to Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1892, taking his B.A. in 1896. He settled at Kilbrack, Doneraile, County Cork, and joined the 9th Battn. of the King's Royal Rifles, formerly the North Cork Militia. When his Regiment sailed for South Africa in January, 1900, Lieut. Nichols remained behind to hand over the Barracks, etc., and then he went to Hythe with a few men for a Maxim gun course. He sailed next month and joined the Regiment at Steynberg on March 24th. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Adjutant, and was promoted Captain April 30th, 1900. He was mentioned in despatches by Lord Kitchener, and at the end of the war was offered army employment in South Africa, but his Colonel refused his consent. The Regiment was disbanded after its return to Ireland, and Capt. Nichols retired. He became J.P. for County Cork, and was Secretary of the local Hunt. On the outbreak of war Capt. Nichols at once volunteered for service, and was gazetted as Captain to the 8th Battn. of the Somerset Light Infantry, September 25th, 1914. After a year's training the Battalion went to France early in September, 1915, with the 21st Division, and Capt. Nichols was gazetted Temporary Major. They took part in the great Loos-Hulluch advance on September 25th and 26th, and in the charge up Hill 70, behind Loos, on the 26th, Maj. Nichols was struck on the side of the head by a piece of shrapnel and fell badly wounded. Our troops swept past Hill 70, but were unable to hold all the ground they had won, and Maj. Nichols was eventually picked up by German stretcher-bearers and taken to Valenciennes and then on to Munich, where he died in the Kriegschule, on October 15th. He was awarded a military funeral. The American Chaplain, Archdeacon Reis, officiated, and English and American ladies who were present at his invitation placed flowers on the coffin. Relatives are indebted to Lieut. Stanley Vaughan, of the 8th Buffs, who was a prisoner in the same hospital, for information as to his last hours and burial, and full details of the funeral have also been received in a letter from Archdeacon Reis." [Source: http://tonbridgeatwar.daisy.websds.net]
