Walter Frederick (Wallie) Ogden, the youngest son of James Roberts Ogden (master watchmaker and jeweller) and Jane Ogden, was born on 1st February 1898 at Gillbeck, West Cliff Terrace, Harrogate. Educated at The Greystones, Scarborough and The Leys School, Cambridge, he was still at school when war broke out in August 1914.
Wallie enlisted under-age into the ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps and served fifteen months in France before being discharged to a commission in the Heavy Machine Gun Corps (precursor to the Tank Corps) aged eighteen on 31st October 1916. He was serving as a second lieutenant with 22 Company of "H" Battalion when it was posted to France, disembarking at Havre on 22nd August 1917. On 29th August, the battalion received the first delivery of its tanks: eighteen Mark IV males; two days later, eighteen Mark IV females were delivered. Apparently it was at the request of the battalion's commanding officer that Wallie's tank was named after his home town.
On 27th November 1917, Wallie wrote to his parents. In what would prove to be his last letter, he described how his tank "Harrogate" took part in the opening days of the Battle of Cambrai, 20th and 21st November:
My Dearest Parents.— We have just got back to a little village (about ten miles behind the line), after a very hard week’s fighting.
The village we are in was blown up by a mine, so there is nothing left of it, but we are all jolly glad to get back, and it has all seemed like a dream.
I cannot tell you all the details, but I will try and give you a rough outline.
We left (censored) on the night of the 19th, and proceeded to a position in the rear of our front line, arriving there about midnight. Here we oiled up and waited for the attack to commence. At 6.10 the artillery opened up with a terrific barrage on the Hindenburg line; at the same time we crossed our front line, and picked our way over No Man’s Land, and made for the Bosch lines.
When the Germans saw us crawling across with the infantry behind us they offered very little resistance, and came over in hundreds and surrendered.
As we got nearer the Germans, the artillery barrage lifted, and we entered their wide belts of barbed wire, which were twenty feet wide and eight feet high. This wire we cut with our tanks, leaving large gaps, through which our infantry came through. After we had taken the German trenches, we made for the village of (censored), which held until we got close enough to use our guns, but our “buses” (that’s what we call our Tanks) got into the village, then they all came out, and the village was captured by our infantry. We pushed on still further for two and a half miles to (censored) Wood, which was our objective, and which I reached with my Tank at 4.30. I stayed there for half an hour, and returned to a fixed rallying point. We did well, and got all our objectives.
Here we stayed to get our “Buses” ready for the next stunt.
We moved up next morning to take the village of (censored), which had been lost the night before. We left at 10 in the morning to take this village and (censored) Wood.
It was here that the Tanks had to fight for their lives, as the Bosch were either drunk or drugged — of that I am sure — as they swarmed round the tanks in hundreds, and we mowed then down like rabbits, but still they came on, and that village was taken four times that day by us.
I am sure there must have been an underground tunnel, as we cleared the trenches in front of the village every time, but when we had passed on into the village a fresh lot of Bosch were there holding up our infantry.
Well, at nightfall, His Majesty’s landship “Harrogate” and crew returned to a wood about a mile and a half behind the village, and stayed in reserve for two days, then we all moved back, and eventually arrived here late last night, after taking part in the greatest battle in history.
I lost two of my crew the first day, but the rest of us came through without a scratch.
Well, I must close now, but will write again soon.
All love, ever your loving son.
Wallie.
The intermediate and final objectives that were taken on 20th November were respectively the village of Ribecourt and Nine Wood. Curiously, the war diary of "H" Battalion makes no mention of "Harrogate" being involved in the fighting on the 21st.
On 1st December, "Harrogate" was one of ten tanks from "H" Battalion to join an attack on Gauche Wood and the village beyond of Villers-Guislain. The attack came under direct fire from enemy artillery batteries on the ridge to the south-east and several tanks received direct hits. It was during this action that Wallie was fatally wounded in the abdomen. He died at a casualty clearing station on the following day, and lies buried at Tincourt New British Cemetery.
The family jewellery business remains in Harrogate today, and is in the hands of Ben and Robert Ogden who take justifiable pride in their great-uncle.