THE small waiting shelter at Windermere railway station has a modern plaque to the memory of a First World War Soldier which many travellers will see and perhaps wonder who he was.

Not much is revealed by the plaque put up by rail company First TransPennine Express which tells rail users “in memory of Lance Corporal A. King who worked as a clerk at this station and gave his all for us.”

The 1911 census shows that Alfred King was a 16-year-old railway clerk who had been born in the parish of Egton-cum-Newland, near Greenodd and lived at Penny Bridge.

His mother was Lowick-born Sarah, aged 52 and his father was Annan-born insurance agent William, aged 63.

His army medal index card show that he was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal and his relatives could have claimed a large bronze Memorial Plaque to record his death in the First World War.

The index car notes that he arrived in France on December 18 in 1915.

He would have made up the depleted numbers of the 7th (service) Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry which had landed at Boulogne-Sur-Mer in July 1916 as part of 61 st Brigade.

The battalion saw action in 1916 in the Battles of Mount Sorrel, Delville Wodd, Guillemont, Flers-Courcelette, Morval and Le Transcoy.

It is highly likely that L/Cpl King was killed during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on the Somme, fought between September 15 and 22.

This was the first time that tanks had been used in combat.

L/Cpl King, army number 24049, was killed in action on the 19 th of September, aged 22.

His body was not recovered and he is named on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme.

He had joined the Army from Kendal, one of many railway workers to serve overseas on war service.

It is possible that the Windermere station clerk had earlier worked in the traffic department at Haverthwaite in 1913 for the Furness Railway.

Windermere station was the terminus of the Kendal and Windermere railway, which opened in 1847.

The lines goes through staveley, Burneside and Kendal to link with the main line at Oxenholme.

The original Windermere station had four lines and a large roof covering the platforms.

In 1973 the line was reduced to a single line shuttle service and in 1986 much of the original station site was cleared for a Booth’s supermarket