Walter Leigh Rayfield VC

b. 07/10/1880 Richmond, Surrey. d. 19/02/1949 Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Walter Leigh Rayfield (1880-1949) was born on 7th October 1880 at 22 Sydney Villas, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, registered as Walter Leigh Lockett. When he married for the first time, his father was named as Thomas Rayfield. When he married for the second time, his father was named as Thomas Guy Rayfield. However, no trace of this man has ever been discovered. A theory is that his stepfather, Thomas Henry Mills, worked at St Thomas and Guy’s Hospital, and perhaps Walter picked on these two names. However that does not account for his adopted surname of Rayfield. At the time of the 1881 Census he was being cared for by Charlotte Kitchen, a domestic nurse at Grove Cottage in Hanwell.

Walter’s mother, Anna “Annie” Maria Lockett, was from Manchester, and a dressmaker, visited her father and stepmother at their public house in Leominster, Herefordshire in 1861. She was a domestic servant at the time of Walter’s birth. She married Thomas Henry Mills, a porter from Southwark, London on 22nd March 1885 in Bermondsey, London. Thomas had been previously married to Elizabeth Hill and had four children.

Walter was educated at Laxon Street School in Southwark until 1891, where he was registered as Walt Lee. He then was being cared for by sisters Harriet and Alice Wemyss, who lived in Painswick, Gloucestershire, a residence for children awaiting migration to Canada. Walter was sent to Canada aboard SS Sardinian under the care of Miss Laver arriving in Quebec on 30th May 1891. By 1910 he was a shingle weaver at Seattle, Washington County, USA and later studied at the Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, California. He was a dairyman at the time of his enlistment in 1917, but recorded his trade as a lumberjack on his attestation papers.

He married Mary “Mamie” or “Maude” Leona Maroney, from Wisconsin, on 8th August 1907 in Seattle, Washington. The marriage ended in divorce in 1915. Walter would remarry in 1921 to Nina Hickling, an office nurse, at Niagara Falls, Ontario. Walter had three children from his two marriages – Walter, Victor and Isobel.

Walter was twice rejected on medical grounds for enlistment. He was eventually successful in May 1917 and joined the Forestry Depot CEF at Vancouver initially but transferred to the British Columbia Regiment on 1st September. He sailed for Britain from Halifax, Nova Scotia aboard SS Justica on 8th January 1918, arriving in Liverpool on 26th January. He went to France on 10th April and was taken on strength of the 7th Battalion the next day. He joined the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp on 15th April and the Battalion on 18th April.

Walter L Rayfield VC

Rayfield was awarded the Victoria Cross for three acts of bravery while he was serving near Cagnicourt in France between 2nd and 4th September 1918. On the first occasion, Rayfield rushed ahead of his company to attack a German trench, bayoneting two of the enemy and taking ten others captive. Later, he located and engaged a German sniper, finally charging the marksman’s section of trench so aggressively that thirty more enemy soldiers surrendered. Rayfield’s third courageous act was to leave cover and carry a badly wounded comrade to safety through heavy machine gun fire. As well as receiving the Victoria Cross, he was made a member of the Royal Order of the Crown of Belgium by the Belgian government.

He received his VC from King George V in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace on 8th March 1919. He embarked for Canada aboard RMS Carmania on 18th April and was discharged in Vancouver on 25th April 1919.

On his return to Canada he tried several jobs including farming before moving to Toronto. The press had given him the nickname “Canada’s Sergeant York.” He joined the Queens York Rangers in 1921 and was given the rank of lieutenant and he served as Sergeant at Arms at the Ontario Legislature. In 1934 he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Don Jail in Toronto, and he was then given the position of Governor which he fulfilled until his death in 1949.

Walter attended the VC Dinner at the House of Lords, London in 1929. He was also presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Queen’s Park, Toronto on 22nd May 1939, alongside six other Canadian VCs.

Walter died on 19th February 1949 at his home in Toronto, Ontario and was buried in Prospect Cemetery. He is commemorated on the VC obelisk in Barrie, Ontario, on Plaque 26 at the York Cemetery VC Memorial in Toronto, a memorial plaque in Villers-les-Cagnicourt, France, and with a VC commemorative stone unveiled at Richmond War Memorial, Surrey on 4th September 2018.

His medals including the VC, British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19, King George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and Royal Order of the Crown of Belgium are held by the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, having been presented to them by his son, Victor, in February 1970.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM, OTTAWA, CANADA.

BURIAL PLACE: PROSPECT CEMETERY, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA.

SECTION 7, GRAVE 4196