John McNeill Walter
(1861-1951), Major-GeneralSitter in 4 portraits
by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, 1920
NPG x66886
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Jennie Macfie
23 October 2015, 14:50
" A superb Great War C.B., Boer War D.S.O. group of eight [medals] to
Major-General J.M. Walter, Devonshire Regiment who was taken prisoner
at Colenso after a gallant last stand.: The Most Honourable Order of
the Bath, Commander’s (C.B.), Military Division, Neck Badge;
Distinguished Service Order, VR; India General Service Medal,
1895-1902, 1 clasp, Punjab Frontier 1897-98 (Captn., 1st. Bn. Devon
Regt.); Queen’s South Africa Medal, 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony,
Orange Free State (Major, Devon Regt.); King’s South Africa Medal,
1901-1902, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Maj.,
D.S.O., Devon Regt.); British War Medal, 1914-20; Victory Medal,
1914-19, with MID Oakleaf (Maj. Gen.); Delhi Durbar, 1911 (engraved
‘Colonel J.M. Walter, D.S.O.’).
He was in the Waziristan Field Force 1914-1920
John McNeil Walter was born at Meerut in eastern India on 10 June
1861. He was the son of General John McNeil Walter, CB, Colonel of
the Royal Sussex Regiment. Educated at Cheltenham Colleges and at the Royal
Military College, Sandhurst, entering the Army in 1880. Walter was
interned in the Officer’s Prisoner of War Camp in the State Model
School at Pretoria and released on the British occupation in June 1900.
He had been Mentioned in Despatches by General Buller [London Gazette
8 February 1901] and on his release became the Commandant at Irene. He
subsequently served on the Staff, including services as the Chief
Censor at Cape Town, was further Mentioned in Despatches [London
Gazette 10 September 1901] and created a Companion of the
Distinguished Service Order. Walter had a distinguished record in the
Devonshire Regiment, which, apart from the Boer War, included a
Mentioned in Despatches for the Punjab Frontier [London Gazette 11
February 1898] and Command of the 1st Battalion from 1906 to 1910.
During the Great War he served in a series of high ranking appointments
in India, including as Adjutant-General, was promoted Major-General in
1918, created a Companion of the Order of the Bath and of the Star of India, and again Mentioned in Despatches "
A first cousin once removed of Rear Admiral Keith McNeil Walter (q.v.) .
My grandmother (who was a second cousin once removed of Major General Walter, and a third cousin of Rear Admiral K M Walter) met JMW on the boat to Gibraltar in the 1930s and swapped genealogical notes with him.