Current Information:

Age-23

163, Westcombe Hill, Blackheath

Feuchy Chapel British Cemetery, France

Each infantry division had a pioneer battalion. Their ranks were made up from labourers and skilled and semi-skilled workers and although they were trained to fight as infantrymen, their role was one of construction , road making and building. However this did not mean that they were not in danger.

The 20th King’s Royal Rifle Corps battalion were the pioneer battalion of 3rd Division which, in April 1917, were one of the divisions engaged in the Battle of Arras. Unfortunately the battalion diary is missing so there is no information concerning the events of 27th April, 1917, when Walter Potton and a number of other men from the battalion were killed. It is likely that shell fire, the biggest cause of death for the men in the trenches, was responsible.