Name
Ernest Russell
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/09/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
52709
Durham Light Infantry
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 128 to 131
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Great Gaddesden War Memorial, Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials, We are not aware of any memorial in Gaddesden Row
Pre War
Ernest Russell was born in 1898 in Gaddesden Row, Great Gaddesden, Herts, the youngest son of William and Jane Russell and baptised there on 28 August 1898.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Gaddesden Row, Great Gaddesden, where his father was working as a shepherd on a farm. They remained there in 1911 when his father was a farm labourer and Ernest was a schoolboy.
On enlistment Ernest gave his occupation as a handyman.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at Hounslow, London, on 11 November 1915 and initially served with the Army Cyclist Corps under reg. no. 10692, later transferring to the Durham Light Infantry on 11 December 1916. He left for France on 12 December 1916 and joined the battalion in the field on 18 December 1916.
He was killed in action at Passchendaele on 21 September 1917. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
Brother to George Russell, Royal Horse Artillery, who died of malaria in Egypt on 1 October 1917. His mother Jane received a war gratuity of £8 10s and pay owing of £6 18s 7d. She also received a pension of 4 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org.
