Name
Ernest Bertram Gatward
22 March 1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/11/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KIMPTON (SS. PETER AND PAUL) CHURCHYARD
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Kimpton Village Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church, Kimpton
Pre War
Ernest Bertram Gatward was born in Claggy Bottom, Kimpton, Herts on 22 March 1887, the son of Herbert Hobbs and Emily Gatward, and was baptised in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Kimpton on 22 May 1887. His parents married at Kimpton on 21 May 1887.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Kimpton Green where his father was working as an agricultural labourer. He then had a brother Albert, born the previous year. They remained in Kimpton in 1901 at which time Ernest was working as a farm labourer and the family had been joined by his sister Florence born in 1893.
He married Clara Louisa Smith on 11 July 1908 at St Peter and St Paul's Church, Kimpton, and on the 1911 Census they were living at Kimpton Bottom and had two children, Ivy and Ernest. In 1914 they had another child Stanley. It seems that from 1911 Ernest used his second name of Bertram and was then working as a Brewers' Drayman.
His mother died in 1915.
Wartime Service
He joined the Bedfordshire Regiment and served with the 2nd Battalion in France from 30 September 1915 where he served for 13 months. He was wounded in October 1916 and put in the Army Reserve, being released for work on the land, taking up his old job as Engine Driver for Mr Oliver at Wandon End.
Ernest Bertram died of pneumonia, aged 31, at his home at Kimpton Bottom on 10 November 1918, having been brought home ill ten days previously. He was buried in St Peter and St Paul's Churchyard, Kimpton on 14 November 1918.
Additional Information
Pension records show surname incorrectly as Gathard and indicate that a pension was refused to his widow on 1 July 1919. She received a war gratuity of £12 10s but no pay owing. No date of death is recorded on the Register of Soldiers' Effects.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.ancestry.co.uk/Gatward family tree, www.kimptonvillage.tsohost.co.uk, livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk,
