Lieutenant-Colonel W.A. Venour
5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment

For the remainder of the day the battalion was subjected to heavy mortar and shell fire, but the battalion commander frequently visited his forward companies and by his personal example kept up a very fine fighting spirit with his battalion, who had been in close contact with the enemy for three days.

(D.S.O. citation, 22 Mar 1945)

Born on 11 August 1905 on the North West Frontier in British India, Walter Anderson Venour was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Edward Venour of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Edward Venour (1864—1914) of the Indian Army. He was killed on the Western Front on 2 November 1914 in command of the 58th Vaughan’s Rifles (Frontier Force). Following his father’s career path, the younger Venour was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment in 1925.

Following mobilization, Venour was attached to the 1/8th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment as second-in-command. He later transferred to the 5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Basil Coad. When Coad was promoted to 130th Infantry Brigade, Venour became commanding officer for the 5th Dorsets.

He would earn the D.S.O. for organizing an attack the next month that captured 182 prisoners at the loss of only one killed and five wounded. He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel A.E.C. Bredin in February 1945. Venour returned to the United Kingdom and would later assume command of the 9th Battalion, Manchester Regiment in late 1945.

He died on 12 January 1970 in Oxford, Oxfordshire.