Military History

Kenneth is listed as being killed in action by cross border raiders on 30th May 1917. The following newspaper article was published in the Coventry Standard on 20th July 1917 and describes the events that led to his death.

THE LATE LIEUTENANT K. S. WATERS.

A letter has been received by the Rev. S. G. Waters, vicar of Meriden (formerly Head Master of the Nuneaton Grammar School), relative to the tragic death of his son, who was well-known and very popular in the district. The writer is Lieut.-Col. E. St. G. Gray, R.A., commanding No. 2 M.A. Brigade, at Kalebagh, Murrell Hills, India. He says:

"I am writing to you on behalf of all the officers of this brigade to express our sincere condolences to you at the death of your son (Lieut. K. S. Waters). I formed a very high opinion of your son's abilities; he was just the type of man who would have made a good officer, and his death is a serious loss to the regiment. He joined on the same day as Lieut. City, and both were attached to No. 1 Mountain Battery at Bara Gali, and lived in his quarters alongside the Mess. These buildings are situated on top of a steep hill surrounded by trees and jungle. There has never before been an attempt at a disturbance. At 10.15 p.m. on the 30th May, five officers, including your son, were sitting round the fire in the mess when two shots were fired simultaneously. The officers jumped up and dashed out of the opposite door; when they found that your son and Lieut. City were not with them they went back and found that both were dead, death being instantaneous, shot through the heart.

A native watchman was in the verandah on the other side and he neither saw nor heard anything except someone scrambling down the hill below the mess. Tracks showed that there had been two bare-footed men, probably two raiders from across the border, who, wishing to get even with the Government for some action taken against them or their relatives, came into British territory and murdered these officers.

"The officers were buried with all military honours in the Kalabagh Cemetery (three miles from Bara Gali), on the 1st June. The police have just informed me that there has been a scrap on the Indus, about 40 miles from here, between police and three raiders who were endeavouring to cross. Two of the former were wounded and one of the latter; the whole of the raiders were captured. It is almost certain that these are the gang who shot your son."