The exceptional Army Gymnast’s Great War Military Cross and Long Service and Good Conduct Medal group awarded to Captain W. Palmer, 9th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, earlier a Serjeant Major Instructor in the Army Gymnastic Staff. Considered to be the best Gymnast in the British Army and Specialising in Swordsmanship he would win the foils at the 1903 Royal Military Tournament and sabres at the 1904 Royal Military Tournament having been runner up on three earlier occasions. By 1909 he had acquired £115 in prize money and had so many medals he ‘could almost open up his own silversmith’s shop with them’. Serving with the 9th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps during the Great War he would be three times mentioned in despatches having taken part in the fighting at Second Ypres, on the Somme, Arras and Third Ypres before being awarded the Military Cross in the London Gazette of 2nd January 1918. The nucleus of the 9th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps would later train the American Army upon it’s arrival on the Western Front. After returning to his Gymnastic career he would the title of Champion Master at Arms for the third time at Olympia in 1920. After 34 years Army service he would retire to become a landlord, and would hold the licence for the Bird-In-Hand Public House in Long Acre, Westminster at the outbreak of the Second World War. He would move to the White Hart Public House in Windmill Street in August 1940. Surviving six months of the Blitz on London during which much of the surrounding area suffered severe damage, Palmer would die tragically when a discarded cigarette caused a fire in the pub from which he could not escape.
Group of 5: Military Cross, GVR, period engraving to reverse ‘CAPT W. PALMER. 9TH K.R.R. JAN.1918’ 1914-1915 Star; (HON:LIEUT: & Q.M. W. PALMER. K.R. RIF. C.) British War Medal and Victory Medal with Mention in Despatches oak leaf emblem; (Q.M. & CAPT. W. PALMER.) Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVR, Fm. bust, swivel suspender; (S. MJR. INSTR. W. PALMER. GYM:ST.) loose-mounted for wear.
Condition: loose-mounted for wear, Nearly Extremely Fine
Walter Palmer was born on the 9th March 1875 in York, and enlisted into the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment in 1893 and was promoted to Lance Corporal less than a year later. Promotion to Corporal followed soon after and within three years of enlistment was made a Sergeant.
In 1896 Walter transferred to the Army Gymnastic Staff, and in 1900 was promoted to Company Sergeant Major. Promotion followed to Quarter-Master Sergeant in 1906, this at that time being the senior N.C.O. rank of the Gymnastic Staff.
Walter was considered by his peers and the press to be the best gymnast in the British Army, specialising in Swordsmanship. In 1903 he won the foils at the Royal Military Tournament and was second in sabres in 1900-01-02. At the Army Athletic meeting in Aldershot in 1903 he won the Sabres and in 1904 secured the sabres at the Eastern Command Tournament and also won the sabres at the Royal Military Tournament.
In 1913 he was second in the foils championship in London and in 1914 he won the foils and was third in the sabres, taking the shield for the best Man-at-Arms (dismounted)
By 1909 he had accrued some £115 in prize money and it was said that he had collected so many medals and prizes that he ‘could almost open his own silversmith’s shop with them.’
During his time in Ireland (1907-1910) Walter was an instructor at the Royal Hibernian Military School and it was stated that ‘anybody young pupils at work always admit that they have never witnessed better position, figure and attention to detail than are shown by these accomplished young lads.’
Walter was posted to the 9th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps as an Honorary Lieutenant and Quartermaster and followed them overseas to France on the 20th May 1915. During the course of the war he likely took part in the Action at Hooge and the Second Attack on Bellewaarde in 1915, he would be Mentioned in Despatches in the London Gazette of 15th June 1916 before seeing action with his Battalion during the Battle of the Somme including at Delville Wood and Flers-Courcelette, he would then be Mentioned in Despatches again in the London Gazette of 4th January 1917. During 1917 he would take part in the fighting at the Hindenburg Line, the first and third Battle of the Scarpe at Arras, the Battle of Langemark and the first and second Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, he would be Mentioned in Despatches for a third time on 25th May 1917 before being awarded a Military Cross in the London Gazette of 2nd January 1918.
During 1918 he would see fighting on the Somme during the German Spring Offensive, at the Battle of St. Quentin and at the Battle of the Avre. Such were the 9th Battalion’s losses that they were reduced to cadre strength and disbanded in August 1918.
During May 1918, the 9th Battalion’s nucleus with Capt. G.B. de Courcy Ireland as Adjutant and Captain Walter Palmer, Quartermaster were employed in the training of American Army units and came under the command of the 16th Division.
Upon the cessation of hostilities, Walter retained the rank of Captain and resumed his Gymnastic career. He was posted to the Army School of Physical Training as Master of Arms to the British Army and continued to complete in all manner of edged weapons events from sabres and foils to bayonet fighting, winning the title of Champion Master-at-Arms at Olympia for a third time in 1920.
Aside from competing, Walter took a keen interest in arranging displays for the Royal Military Tournament. As with Walter’s pre war career, his post war achievements are too numerous to list. Walter would retire from the Regular Forces and the Emergency Reserves thus ending 34 years of meritorious service.
When war was declared in 1939, Walter held the licence for the Bird-in-Hand public house at Long Acre, Westminster. For the first few months, things on the home front were reasonably quiet. Britain had sent its expeditionary force to France and Belgium where it was digging-in for a possible German invasion. Major towns and cities across the United Kingdom were preparing for an aerial bombing campaign, akin to that seen during the Spanish Civil War. The Phoney War as this period became known, soon ended as the German Blitzkrieg swept across western Europe, resulting in the Battle of France and the evacuation of the British troops from Dunkirk.
The threat of invasion cast a dark shadow over Britain in the summer of 1940. The German military were preparing Operation Sealion and Goering’s Luftwaffe began the task of dismantling the Royal Air Force. The Battle of Britain began on the 10th July 1940 and for the next 3 months, young men from a variety of Allied nations took to the air in the Hurricanes and Spitfires to defend the British Isles from German war machine.
In August 1940, Walter took over the licence of the White Hart Public House in Windmill Street, central London. Little did he know that the focus of the Luftwaffe was about to shift from the Royal Air Force to the very area he now called home. The Blitz officially began on the 7th September 1940, known as Black Saturday, and London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights, the focus of which was very often the areas surrounding the White Hart public-house. As can be seen from a London bomb damage map, the White Hart and its neighbouring properties were destroyed and heavily damaged in 1940/41 resulting in the area being completely cleared and rebuilt post war.
After 6 months living under the daily threat of Luftwaffe bombing, gallant Walter met his ignoble end – not at the hands of the Luftwaffe but by a single discarded match.
‘Air raid wardens tried in vain to rescue a man and woman trapped in London fire yesterday. People living near the White Hart public house in Windmill Street, Tottenham Court Road, W.C., were awakened before eight by a woman’s screams. They saw smoke belching from the storey above the public house. ‘A dark-haired woman was leaning out of a front window.’ Said a neighbour.
‘A man behind the woman was shouting to her to lean out of the window to get fresh air. Then both the man and woman disappeared.’
Mr John Manhoney and other wardens at a nearby post, among them Mrs. S. White, ran out to give help.
They reared a ladder against the front of the building to fetch down the two people upstairs, but the ladder was too short. Mr. Mahoney got in by smashing the windows in the club room on the first floor, but was driven back by flames which had destroyed the stairway, trapping the occupiers of the floor above. On his way back down the ladder he had to pass through a sheet of flames. His hands were blistered and the haft of his axe was burned through.
By the time the A.F.S. men reached the two people upstairs, they were dead. They were Captain Walter Palmer, the licensee, and Mrs Hilda Kuhn. Captain Palmer took the licence of the White Hart about seven months. Previously he was at the Bird-In-Hand, Long Acre, London.
Mrs. W. Murray, a warden at Mahoney’s post said “Mahoney was fine. That fellow would go through hell to do his job.”
At the inquest that followed, the Coroner Mr. H. Neville Stafford, commended the action of John Marney of Whitfield Street, West London, an A.R.P. worker who made a plucky attempt to rescue the dead persons from the burning building. The coroner said that Marney, in his attempts, had been beaten back by the flames. ‘I think he behaved very courageously and it was a very brave act indeed on his part.;
In his evidence John Marney said he had just come from a shelter and when told there were two persons in a room on the second floor of the house he got a pickaxe and smashed in the front door. He was met by fierce flames and had to retire. He then got a ladder but found it was too short to reach the second floor window, so he kicked out the first floor window and got inside. On reaching the staircase he found the heat was terrific and he was compelled to leave the place.
Dr. G. Cohen of Middlesex Hospital said that Capt. Palmer and Mrs Kuhn were both dead when admitted. Both had died from shock from extensive burns.
Harold J. Beale, Fire Brigade Officer, said that the Brigade received the call at 8am. An escape was put up to the window of a room on the second floor of the public-house and the bodies of Captain Palmer and Mrs. Kuhn were brought out of the room. The ground floor and the whole of the staircase was extensively damaged by fire, but there was no damage on the first floor. He examined the building after the fire had started in the saloon bar and was probably caused by a lighted match or lighted cigarette having been thrown carelessly down by someone. This set light to a settee, which was completely destroyed by fire.
In recording his verdict the Coroner said he thought the theory advanced by the Fire Brigade that the fire started through someone having thrown down a carelessly lighted match or cigarette in the saloon bar was a likely solution of what happened.
