The Illustrated London News reported on Saturday 16th May 1885 that: 'A handsome window, executed by Heaton, Butler, and Bayne, has just been placed in Fawley church, Henley-on-Thames. It was presented by the late Dr. Almack in memory of his son, Lieutenant Almack, of H.M.S. Briton, killed while in command of part of the Naval Brigade in Egypt early in 1884. It bears appropriate inscription, and texts'. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001578/18850516/043/0015

The website of St Mary's Church mentions the memorial window: 'The stained glass in the west window commemorates a naval lieutenant killed in action in Egypt in 1884, the son of one of the incumbents'. http://www.hambleden-valley-churches.org.uk/FAWhistory.htm

The War Memorials Trust's record of this memorial can be found at https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/258458/

Historic England's record of the listing of St Mary's Church, Fawley can be found at https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1125702

Army and Navy Gazette 15/3/1884: In its report of the Battle of Tamai, mention was made of the death of Lieutenant Walter Byrom Almack: "Lieut. Walter Byrom Almack was the son of the Rev. H. Almack, rector of Fawley, Bucks. He entered the Navy in 1863, and was appointed lieutenant in 1875. He served as sub-lieutenant in H.M.’s ships Pallas and Sultan, and as lieutenant in H.M.’s ship Raleigh in 1876-77. He studied for gunnery lieutenant from 1877 -1879, and on examination took a second-class certificate. Lieut. Almack has been gunnery lieutenant of H.M.’s ships Penelope and Briton, and in 1881 proceeded the East Indies station in the latter vessel'. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001394/18840315/125/0018#

Reading Mercury 22/3/1884 reported: 'The Late Lieutenant Walter B. Almack, R.N. —This promising young officer, who was killed in the battle of Tamasi [sic], on the 13th inst., was the fifth son of the Rev. H. Almack, D.D., rector of Fawley, Henleyon-Thames. He was 33 years of age, and had been serving as gunnery lieutenant on board H.M.S. Briton since March 29th, 1881. The Briton arrived at Trinkatat only the evening before the battle of El Teb, in which action Lieut. Almack was in command of the Naval Battery. He escaped unhurt, and was again in command of the detachment from the Briton in the battle of Tamasi [sic], where he fell bravely defending the guns, when the square was for a brief time broken by the desperate charge of the Arabs. The deceased's family have received from all quarters the sincerest sympathy in their bereavement and warm expressions of admiration for Lieut. Almack's brave and noble death'. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000369/18840322/049/0005

The circumstances of Lieutenant Walter Byrom Almack's death in the 'Battle of Tamai' (which was recorded on the relevant medal clasps as 'Tamaai') have been researched by Fawley's Churchwarden David Napier and local historian Alfred Waller, who kindly supplied the following information to IWM re events at the relevant time: 'Britain was supporting the Egyptian government against the rebellion of the ‘Mahdi’, who saw himself as a living reincarnation of the Prophet Mohammed. He sought independence of the Sudan from Egyptian rule. No less than three Egyptian expeditions had ended in disaster, so the British government sent a joint Army and Naval force up the Nile in support of another Egyptian expedition. When it reached the town of 'Tamasi', as it was called in the Gazette report, it was attacked by a huge force of fanatical dervishes who believed that they could not be killed by infidel bullets. The desperate battle which ensued saw the Mahdi’s dervishes pitched against the disciplined but heavily outnumbered British and Egyptian troops. In the chaos of battle a number of the naval guns ran out of ammunition and became separated from the main British force. One of these guns was commanded by Lt Almack who was cut down by the advancing dervishes. A private in the Black Watch, Thomas Edwards, was part of the gun team responsible for carrying the gun’s ammunition on mules and defending the team. When the gun became separated and Walter Almack was killed, Edwards taking charge of events, succeeded in saving the gun, the mules and the ammunition, whilst returning what remained of the naval gun team to safety despite suffering several spear wounds. Thomas Edwards was awarded the Victoria Cross aged 24. He was by then a comparatively seasoned veteran of the Egyptian campaigns which continued until 1889. He retired from the army in 1892 still as a private. He moved to Chigwell in Essex late in life and was buried there in an unmarked grave in 1952'. (In 2001 the Black Watch Regimental Association erected a stone at the entrance to St Mary's Church, High Road, Chigwell, commemorating Thomas Edwards VC).