HOLFORD-WALKER Allen T/Major

SKR/DAT/IP/28205

HOLFORD-WALKER Allen T/Major

2000-2024

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Surname: HOLFORD-WALKER;

Forename(s): Allen;

Initials: A;

Rank: T/Major;

Previous Regiment: Argyll & SH;

MGC Branch: Motors;

MGC Unit: MMGS TC;

Awarded: MC;

Other Data: see "Band of Brigands" (Christy Campbell)
Allen Holford-Walker (1890-1949) was born on 1 January 1890 in Southend, Essex. He was the eldest son of Brigadier General Edgar Holford-Walker and his wife Maria. Allen had two younger brothers, Leslie and Archibald, and a sister Audrey.

His family had a history of military service. Edgar was in the Royal Artillery he had served in India, and was decorated following the Battle of Tel-El-Kabir (1882). Allen’s uncle George was killed in action in Malaya in 1832. Allen attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, graduating in 1909 into 1st Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in honour of his mother’s Scottish heritage. He served with them in Malta and India before the First World War.

On 14 December 1914 Allen married Joan Barrington Moody in Farnham, Surrey. Two days earlier he had been promoted to captain.

Allen spent the first months of 1915 training in Alresford, Hampshire, and holidaying with Joan. On 11 May 1915 he was sent to France with the 10th (Service) Battalion of the Argylls. They were part of 27th Brigade in 9th (Scottish) Division.

Prior to departing, Allen is said to have attended a séance, where it was foretold he would be injured in the stomach during the war. To avoid this fate he wore his helmet on his stomach!

While inspecting the Argylls one night, he chose to wear trews (trousers). As Highland battalions traditionally wore kilts, Allen had instructed his troops that men in trousers were the enemy. He was mistaken for a German and attacked with a pickaxe by one of his soldiers.

On 1 July 1915, Allen went into action at Festubert. His unit suffered heavy losses in the attack, and Allen himself was wouded. Admitted to hospital, he returned to England at the end of the month, and remained on sick leave until December. His first daughter Grizel was born on 4 January 1916.

Allen applied to the Motor Machine Gun Service in December 1915, but his application got lost. Instead he was assigned to the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps who operated the tank.

Allen commanded tanks on the Somme from September 1916. After the battle of Ancre in November 1916, he returned to England. He was awarded the Military Cross in the New Year’s Honours of 1917 for his bravery in France. His second daughter Maria was born on 18 January that year.

The Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps became the Tank Corps in July 1917. Allen remained with them for the rest of the war. During this time he was regularly admitted to hospital as a result of his previous injuries. He was on sick leave on 11 November 1918, and celebrated the Armistice with his wife Joan in Dorset.

In 1919 Allen rejoined the Argylls. His son Fionn was born on 5 February 1922. He retired from the Army with the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel in 1924.

The next year, Allen and Joan travelled to Kenya. In 1929 they bought a farm there, where Allen raised Ayrshire cattle and owned a pet cheetah named Pong.

Allen briefly returned to England during the Second World War (1939-45). Being too old to fight he advised at the Colonial Office and led passive air defence in Scotland.

On returning to Kenya sickness and war wounds plagued him in later life. He died at his home in Nanyuki on 22 April 1949. Some 100 years after the first tank battle, Allen’s descendants remain in the British Army and are still serving in tanks

Photo GS Archive;

Other Notes: MC: LG 1/1/1917;

END OF RECORD.

English

1 digital record

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