Walter Scott West
United States Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient (1872–1943)

Walter Scott West (March 13, 1872 – September 14, 1943) was a private serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Spanish–American War who received the Medal of Honor for bravery.
Biography
West was born on March 13, 1872, in Bradford, New Hampshire. He joined the Marine Corps from Boston in May 1897. He initially received a bad conduct discharge in January 1899, which was upgraded to honorable in 1932.
West died on September 14, 1943.
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 13 March 1872, Bradford, N.H. Accredited to: New Hampshire. G.O. No.: 521, 7 July 1899.
Citation:
On board the U.S.S. Marblehead during the operation of cutting the cable leading from Cienfuegos, Cuba, 11 May 1898. Facing the heavy fire of the enemy, West displayed extraordinary bravery and coolness throughout this action.
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This entry incorporates text from “Walter Scott West” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.