Walter William Allsworth was a distinguished war veteran as well as being a community stalwart on the Cutteslowe estate in Oxford.

He collected a crop of medals during military service in the Boer War and the First World War.

He was pictured conducting the Cutteslowe Darby and Joan Club choir at the club’s birthday party in 1954 (Memory Lane, May 25).

Now former Lord Mayor of Oxford Ann Spokes Symonds has written in with more details of his career.

He was born at 3 Ayres Yard, St Thomas’s, Oxford, the son of Thomas and Sarah Allsworth, in 1879. His first job was at the Clarendon Press at the age of 14 and he then moved on to work at Simonds’ brewery.

At 18, he joined the 1st Battalion, the Royal Berkshire Regiment, and spent the whole of the Boer War in South Africa.

Little is known of his war record, but he was awarded two medals – the Queen’s Medal for Transvaal, Orange Free State and Cape Colony, 1899-1900, with the inscription ‘Victoria Regina et Imperatrix’ and the King’s Medal, South Africa 1901 and 1902, with the inscription ‘Edwardus VII Imperator’.

After returning from South Africa, he married Annie Newell, from Stanton St John, at St Frideswide Church in Botley Road, Oxford, on Boxing Day 1903. He later served in the First World War, earning three more medals with his regiment.

Mrs Spokes Symonds, of Davenant Road, Oxford, remembers his involvement in the controversial issue of the Cutteslowe Walls, which stood dividing private homes from council homes for 25 years.

She writes: “He and his wife Annie lived next door to one of the walls and they kindly agreed to stand in front of it as workmen were demolishing it in 1959. He held up the sign ‘Down At Last’ as I photographed them.

“As secretary of Oxford Age Concern, one of my jobs was to liaise with all the clubs for older people in the city and I often visited Cutteslowe Darby and Joan Club and met Mr Allsworth there.”