Captain Walter Alexander Tyrrell

Regiment: Royal Air Force
Date published: 12/07/1918
Killed in action: Yes
Date of death: 09/06/1918
Age at death: 19
Cemetery: Beauvais Communal Cemetery, Oise, France
Plot: 17. 558.
Information: Captain Walter Alexander Tyrrell, Flight Commander R.A.F., who was killed in action on Sunday morning, 9th June, was the youngest of the three soldier sons of Alderman John Tyrrell, J.P., ex-High Sheriff of Belfast, The Cairn, Bangor, Co. Down. He was only a little over nineteen years of age, but had about three years' service to his credit. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and joined the Royal Naval Armoured Car Section under Commander Locker Lampson, M.P. Early in 1915, being then between sixteen and seventeen years of age and probably the youngest Petty Officer in the Navy, he saw a good deal of rough and tumble fighting in Flanders and Belgium, eventually coming home to take his commission through the Belfast Queen's University Officers' Training Corps. After undergoing training as a pilot. Captain Tyrrell was sent to France for active service, where he distinguished himself greatly, having brought down no less than eighteen enemy machines up to the time of his death. Only three weeks ago he was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in bringing down three German machines in one flight.