205911 Pte. Walter Charles Miller British Army South Lancashire Regiment from:8, Charles Street, Blackpool My grandfather was gassed twice during the war, received shrapnel wounds to both legs and his head. I have a photograph of him whilst at the West Ham Red Cross Hospital, Basingstoke. He did not receive a pension, but until his death in 1948 from lung cancer which we believe was related to the gassing. He was never fully fit, suffering from constant lung infections and femoral thromboses.
Born in Manchester, he was a highly intelligent man of uneducated Irish parentage who taught me to read before I went to school and continued to oversee my education, particularly in the spoken & written word, until his death. A life-long supporter of the Labour Party, he was an early member of the ILP and was elected to the Fabian Society.
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