Name
Ernest Frederick Wilshire
25 March 1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/11/1917
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
241606
Suffolk Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL
Panel 4.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock
Pre War
Ernest Frederick Wilshire was born in Kensington, London on 25 March 1886, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Wilshire (nee Ball). He was one of eleven children, although one died in infancy.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 4 Campden House Mews, Kensington and his father was working as a coachman/domestic servant. They remained in Campden House Mews in 1901, then living at No. 13 and continued to live there in 1911, at which time Ernest was working as a groom domestic. His father was head of the household and his brother Charles was living with them. Meanwhile, his mother had moved to Baldock by 1911 with his sisters Lily, Eva, Florence, Mabel and Grace.
At the time of enlistment in Hammersmith, Ernest was working in London.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hammersmith, London and initially joined the Bedfordshire Regiment under reg. no. 28635, later transferring to the Suffolk Regiment.
Ernest had only been in France for about three months when he was killed in action on 26 November 1917. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louveral, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £7 10s and pay owing of £6 7s 7d. No pension records have been found.
His parents later lived at 1 Avenue Villas, Baldock. His brother Charles served with the Royal Field Artillery as a Gunner from 3 June 1915. He served in India and Mesopotamia and was demobilized in April 1919. His brother Cecil had emigrated to America in 1913 and served as a medic in the US Army in France in the war.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson
