BRIAN Bates’ article about Walter Hill, the Dorchester man who died during the First World War, sparked a response from reader and historian Jonathan Pullen.

Lieut Hill was a contemporary of Jonathan’s three maternal uncles, Laurence Stanley ‘Tubby’ Parke (b. 1890), Walter Evelyn ‘Bob’ Parke (b. 1891) and John Aubrey Parke (b. 1892) at Thomas Pellatt’s Durnford Preparatory School, Langton Matravers.

He said: “WE and JA Parke were also educated at Winchester College. WE, especially, was renowned for his cricketing prowess and was hailed as ‘the best left-handed batter for England – if he had played for them’.

“The eldest boy, Laurence, went to Wellington College and then into the Army, only to die of a stroke in Aden in 1940. The younger brothers followed Parke family tradition, obtaining commissions in the Durham Light Infantry and sadly sharing a similar fate to that of Walter Hill.

“Lieutenant Walter Parke died at the Battle of La Bassée on October 13, 1914, apparently while helping to haul one of his battalion’s machine guns – possibly their only one – over a hedge.

“He is buried at Outteersteene Communal cemetery.”

Lieut JA Parke, seconded to The Rifle Brigade, was killed on September 28, 1915, at the Battle of Loos and his body was never found, although he is on the Menin Gate memorial.

Jonathan said: “Perhaps this was rather symbolic of the grimmer phase that the war had entered. My mother told me that, while on leave, he had been unjustly handed a ‘white feather’ by some ignorant woman.

“When you think what those men had to go through – and the families they left behind.”

Jonathan also provided us with a photograph of the Durnford School hockey team.

“My uncles’ Durnford Prep School days are depicted in team photographs and charming family snaps; also, descriptions and photographs of the swimming pool at Dancing Ledge which Thomas Pellatt, the headmaster, had had ‘blasted out’ so his boys could swim there safely.

“The description in today’s article of Durnford School as ‘notoriously Spartan’, is open to challenge as there seems much cheerfulness and vigour on the faces – Walter Hill may be among them – but I feel a deep sadness when I contemplate the terrible toll which The Great War exacted on them.”