Walter Dabney Frazier (1896-1918)

Walter Dabney Frazier was the son of Walter Atkinson Frazier and Mabel R. Dabney Frazier. He was born in Pittsburgh on Dec. 28, 1896; it appears he was an only child. Walter Sr. was a stockbroker by profession; by 1900, the family had moved to Brooklyn, New York. Eventually, the family moved back to Pittsburgh, taking up residence at 5744 Ellsworth Ave.
From a young age, Frazier was drawn to the soldier’s life. While he was still a Peabody High School student, he organized a company of Peabody boys to do military drills. He also joined a group called the Pittsburgh High School Cadets, and was a member of the Highland Cadets, the United Boys Brigades of America, and the former 14th Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard, Company L, where he was a sergeant.
After leaving Peabody High School, Frazier sought training at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, which he completed in June 1917.
Frazer was so eager to join up in the “war to end all wars” that he wasn’t willing to wait for President Woodrow Wilson and Congress to take up a declaration. After finishing his coursework at Culver, he ran away from home and crossed the border into Toronto, where he enlisted as a private in Canada’s 208th Overseas Battalion, the “Irish Fusiliers.” As the Pittsburgh Press marveled in an account dated Aug. 19, 1917,
“For three months, he [Frazier] had intensive training, which, in addition to his four years at Culver, made him so proficient in the manual that he is qualified as a drill master. Because he is not yet of age and because it was inevitable that the United States would be in the war, his parents obtained a discharge from the Canadian battalion, and he returned to Pittsburgh.”
Frazier was soon commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, and sent to Quantico, Virginia. He was finally sent overseas in November 1917 with the 49th Company, 5th Regiment—an outfit nicknamed the “Devil Dogs.”
His mother reportedly sent him a cake for his 21st birthday, and he told her in a letter he had eaten it, “after illuminating it with the 21 lighted candles, in a trench.”
Walter Dabney Frazier was killed by shrapnel at Chateau-Thierry on June 5, 1918. Frazier’s honors include the U.S. Army Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Navy Cross, and France’s Croix de Guerre for extraordinary heroism and bravery:
"Frazier, during actions with the 5th Regiment in the Aisne Sector in June 1918, displayed extraordinary heroism in action at Chateau Thierry, [while] leading untrained troops in repulsing the German advance. He was killed in action while moving his men to shelter during a violent bombardment."
He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.