Baptised in Thornage on the 28^th April 1895 Ernest was the youngest son of James and Elizabeth’s nine children. At the time of the 1901 census he is living at home with his parents, in Thornage. By 1911, he is 16 years of age and working as a groom. Living with his parents and older brother in Sharrington, Ernest and Hubert maybe joined up together as they were the last two children living at home?

Enlisting as a Private (service number: 41564) he was in the 1^st Battalion Essex regiment when killed, on 14^th April 1917. Commemorated at the Arras memorial, in the western part of this town, along with almost 35,000 men who died in this sector. These deaths can be attributed to the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the later attack in 1918.

We do not know when Ernest joined up but 1^st Battalion Essex Regiment departed for Gallipoli 21^st March 1915, via Malta, Alexandria and then Mudros. Landing 25^th April they were involved in heavy fighting until evacuated 7/8^th January 1916 to Egypt. In March they set sail for Marseilles and then travelled by train to an area east of Pont Remy. July 1916 saw them at the Battle of the Somme and in 1917 the First, Second and Third Battle of the Scarpe during the Arras offensive.

At the beginning of 1917, the British and French were still searching for a way to achieve a strategic breakthrough on the Western Front. The British plan was to concentrate the full weight of artillery on a relatively narrow stretch of eleven miles, from Vimy Ridge to Neuville Vitasse. The bombardment was planned to last about a week at all points on the line, with a longer and heavier barrage at Vimy to weaken its defences. During the assault, the troops would advance in open formation, with units leapfrogging each other in order to allow them time to consolidate and regroup.

The Battle of Arras raged from 9 April to 16 May 1917, British, Canadian, South African, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and Australian troops attacked German troops. There were major gains on the first day, followed by stalemate. The battle cost nearly 160,000 British casualties. After considerable bombardment, Canadian troops advancing in the north were able to capture the strategically significant Vimy Ridge and British divisions in the centre were also able to make significant gains astride the Scarpe river. In the south, British and Australian forces made only minimal gains. Following these initial successes, British forces engaged in a series of small-scale operations to consolidate the newly won positions. Although these battles were generally successful in achieving limited aims, these were gained at the price of large numbers of casualties. When the battle officially ended on 16 May, British Empire troops had made significant advances but had been unable to achieve a breakthrough.

The battle started 9 April with Zero-Hour at 5:30a.m. east of Arras, the ultimate objective of these assaults being the Monchyriegel, a trench running between Wancourt and Feuchy. The assault was preceded by a bombardment lasting five minutes, it was snowing heavily; Allied troops advancing across no man’s land were hindered by large drifts. It was still dark and visibility on the battlefield was very poor. A westerly wind was at the Allied soldiers’ backs and the combination of the bombardment and poor visibility meant many German troops were caught unawares and taken prisoner. The British consolidated gains and push forward towards Monchy-le-Preux, although they suffered heavy casualties in fighting near the village.

The 88th Brigade, the brigade in which the 1st Essex Battalion was serving, was to execute a two-battalion attack against an objective known as Infantry Hill. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment was on the right and the 1st Essex Battalion on the left.

Conditions were so bad in Monchy-le-Preux village, with the detritus from horse carcasses blocking the narrow roads that the attack was postponed until 5:30 a.m. on 14 April, the barrage opened and the two battalions began their advance. As the British troops advanced towards the high ground they were subjected to a strong German counterattack which surrounded them. By 9:00am the surviving men were forced to surrender. Although all communication by telephone had been cut by artillery fire, a wounded man from the 1st Essex Battalion managed to make it to battalion headquarters to report that all men had either been killed or captured. The Germans pressed their counterattack, and soon advanced to the edge of Monchy-le-Preux capturing the trenches from which the 1st Essex Battalion and Royal Newfoundland Regiment had launched their attack. The commander of the Newfoundland Regiment, with eight other men opened rifle fire from the edge of the village. For five hours their fire held back the enemy until fresh troops reached them. These men, known as the ‘Men who saved Monchy’ were all decorated for this action.

If Ernest joined up at the beginning of WW1 he had seen horrific fighting and had survived some awful battles he was indeed a very brave soldier.