On the 20th January 1916 the War Diary of the 1st Battalion of the British West Indies Regiment reported that:
39 Officers and 1,559 other ranks entrained at Seaford, Sussex to proceed overseas
Charles Milton Walker was among them:
Born in British Guiana (now Guyana) on 23rd May 1896, Milton (as he was known by his family) was nineteen years old. He was not the youngest of the men leaving Seaford that day but he was among the youngest. He came from a military background, his father had served in the West India Regiment for almost a decade, which may help explain why Milton had been so keen to enlist (his service number, 272, indicates that he had been among the first to join up).
None of the men leaving Seaford, as far as we know, has left any written record of their feelings as they set off for service overseas, but it is easy to imagine the mixture of excitement and trepidation they must have felt on the train journey across southern England to Plymouth where a ship, HMT Marathon, was waiting to take them on the next stage of their journey. They may also have felt relief at leaving the training camp at Seaford where seventeen of their comrades had died, including one, Reginald Fitzherbert Laing, who died the day before they set off.
The train carrying the men, paused at Exeter before making its way to Plymouth. The following day the men were on their way, bound for Alexandria and service in Egypt. What happened next is told in:
You can read the story of Charles Milton Walker and his brothers, Leonard and Clarence, in this book by his daughter, Maria Downer:
