🪖  Condescending, irritable, narcissistic  🪖

A young lieutenant who is full of arrogance- in his position, his upbringing, and his authority.

Walter is a young man on the rather skinny side. He has a rather weak constitution, and he is easily knocked about and injured. He has pale skin, lidded grey-blue eyes with long eyelashes, a small turned-up nose, and small, round lips. He has rather long, curly russet-tinted light brown hair, somewhat shaved at the sides but grown out on top. He is very proud of his hair, and will gleefully spend time styling it and showing it off whenever he is able to. He has large ears and a boyish face with a pointy chin. These youthful features have earned him nicknames like "Cupid" and "Baby-Face Bennett Price" by the soldiers behind his back. He constantly stands upright and composes himself to always look his best. As to be expected, he is always seen in his standard British Officers' Uniform, wearing a long khaki tunic over shirt and tie, Sam Browne belt, tan breeches, and knee-length brown boots. He often wears brown leather gloves. He always carries around his swagger stick. Sometimes he wears his stiff peaked Service Dress cap, but prefers to go without. When in his civilian clothes, he wears nothing less than well-tailored suits and dark boots, alongside a Derby hat or a Panama hat depending on the occasion. He is 5'3".

Walter is a rather unpleasant character to all but his superiors. He is snippy, rude, and tends to disregard most others' feelings. Although he is only a university student, he got a bit of a complex after being assigned to officer duties after he enlisted with the army. He is pretentious to the extreme, and revels in the feeling of having superiority over others. He will frequently threaten others with unpleasant work and court martialing if he feels he is being disrespected or not getting his way. Due to being raised to focus on his studies, Walter is actually rather sedentary. He doesn't like to do any kind of physical labour, preferring to lie or weasel his way out of any work. Barely does any actual functional work in the trenches, instead delegating tasks to his platoon or splitting duties with his higher-ups. He feels good making big decisions and being doted on and likes to think of himself as a leader. Hates being wrong, and genuinely believes he rarely makes mistakes. Loathes being called cute or being seen as immature. Is easily bored and will sometimes strike up drama just for the sake of entertainment. He generally presents himself as being quite serious- however, as much as he claims not to give into his emotions, it is clear that he is easily affected by his feelings. His mood is able to change rapidly. He is extremely nationalistic, and operates on the idea of having a major superiority over the non-English- even to the point of thinking some fellow Englishmen from certain areas of the country are below him, too. He is particularily cruel to working class and non-white people.

Walter's story takes place on the Western Front in mid-1916, during the Great War. He is stationed in France, being one of the officers commanding a platoon during the Battle of the Somme.

Walter was born in Windsor, England to an upper-middle class family on January 10, 1895. His father was a doctor and his mother was a girls' college teacher. He is an only child, but is technically the second-born. He had an elder sister named Anna who was stillborn. Since Walter was born a healthy baby after his sister's passing, his parents doted on him heavily from the very start. This upbringing had Walter believing he was the centre of the universe for most of his childhood, and he never quite grew out of it.

Walter enjoyed a very cushy childhood. His parents constantly pandered to his wants, whether it be toys, books, or entertainment. He was tutored very consistently in both his academics and his arts. He was naturally very good at history, literature, and science. He never cared for visual art but became very attached to playing piano, and still practices regularly.

He attended Eton College in his teenage years, as his father had registered him from birth. Afterwards, he attended Cambridge University, studying Classics with intentions of going into politics after his graduation. He has a strong academic fondness for anything to do with Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, and anything to do with the British Empire. He is very good at Latin.

Walter joined the army in the summer of 1914, after coming home from his term at Cambridge. He thought the war would be nothing more than a short-lived summer romp in between his years at university. He was excited to "prove" himself as an upper-class man who could use his education to "guide" men of the lower classes. Despite his smaller stature than other men his age, his background and education meant that Walter was immediately put into commission as an officer at the Second Lieutenant level. He had to puff out his chest and stand tall in order to pass his medical.

He serves in the 6th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's), within the 53rd Brigade, 18th (Eastern) Division, as part of Kitchener's Army.

(WIP)

• Smokes and drinks regularly. Prefers drinking to smoking for the most part.
• Plays piano and isn't half bad at it. Only really plays classical pieces, and doesn't enjoy singing along. He will bristle at jazz and music hall pieces.
• Some of his men have theorised that Walter wears his uniform one size too big since he wants to look larger than he really is. Walter, obviously, hasn't confirmed this.
• He loses his left leg below the knee in combat in 1917. He uses crutches and a wooden prosthetic leg for a while, but adopts a metal prosthetic leg later on.
• His zodiac sign is Capricorn, and his lunar zodiac sign is Wood Horse.
• His faceclaim is (x), and his voiceclaim is Joffrey from Game of Thrones. (He has a slightly nasal voice, and has a higher-pitched voice than other men his age; some varied tone, when not ordering soldiers around. He has a very "proper" Southern accent.)