Walter was born on 22nd May 1894 in Apia, Upolu, Samoa, one of the three sons of Otto Friedrich (a merchant) and Jenny Marie Delphine Spatz. The family later lived in New South Wales, Australia and afterwards at 17, Matheson Road, West Kensington and Fern Bank, Didsbury, Manchester.
His parents were originally from Germany, Walter’s father being born in Wurzburg, Bavaria and his mother in Hamburg, Prussia. They became naturalised British citizens in the early 1900s. Walter was educated at St Paul’s School, London.
He enlisted on 4th August 1914 as Private, 1546, 28th Battalion, London Regiment, went to France on 26th October 1914 and received a commission in the Middlesex Regiment on 22nd April 1915.
Second Lieutenant Walter Rudolf Carl Spatz, 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, died on 1st July 1916, aged 22, during an attack up Mash Valley towards Ovillers. The family changed their name from Spatz to Spence in 1939.
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