As one of the earliest engagements of the First World War, the Battle of Le Cateau was also the last to be fought in open ground, before the conflict sank into the mud and stagnation of trench warfare. As part of the action, on August 26th, 1914, British troops were detailed to recapture howitzers from the Germans, but amongst the casualties would be 21 year old Second Lieutenant Eric Greville Earle who, having received a bullet wound to his left wrist, glanced down to determine the damage. He was then hit by a second bullet, which pierced his left eye and continued out through the back of his head. Yet by glancing down he had almost certainly escaped death, since the bullet would have otherwise entered his brain. The award of the DSO subsequently recognised his part in the action, and in his later military career he would progress to the rank of Brigadier. Eric was the son of a well known Liverpool import and export shipping family, and following the dissolution of his first marriage to Noel Downes Martin, he would become acquainted with Walton Hall by his marriage in 1931 to Diana, ‘Dido’, Harley, a tall and striking blue eyed blonde ‘with a rather loud laugh.’ She was the eldest daughter of the late Dr. Vaughan Harley of Walton Hall, and there the couple would set up home, with Diana becoming stepmother to four young sons, of whom all would be educated at Stowe. Later joining the army, on being made top cadet at his military training college one boy would telephone his good news to his family at Walton Hall, but within an hour they then received another phone call, to say that he had been killed by falling from a moving gun carriage onto a bank. At the outbreak of World War Two Brigadier Earle was posted to Cairo. He took Diana with him, but by the time of their return the rectory and Walton Hall had been occupied by some 40 members of the W.R.N.S., engaged on the code breaking work at Bletchley Park, and the couple had to move into Walton Lodge Cottage until the duration. However, as with many families of a similar status their fortunes after the war were never quite the same, and of the previous and somewhat extensive staff now only a single maid remained. Yet the couple continued to live at Walton, and in 1964 with Diana wanting Christmas to be a quiet affair, and with none of the family expected until after the festive day, on Christmas Eve they went out to dinner. Yet suddenly falling ill that night Diana died, and food poisoning, occasioned by the oysters of the meal, was suspected as the cause. Devastated, her husband had all the furnishings turned out of Walton Hall and burnt, and the following autumn having died of a broken heart he would be buried beside Diana in the church. None of the family ever returned to live at Walton Hall, and in 1967 the Milton Keynes Development Corporation purchased the property to accommodate the Planning and Architects offices, pending their eventual move to Wavendon Tower. Then on September 1st, 1969 the Open University officially took up the residence, and the grounds of the Hall have since been extensively overlaid by their consequent developments.