Name
Ernest Gladding
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/08/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
235231
Royal Welsh Fusiliers
17th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY
XXII. O. 8A.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bengeo War Memorial Plaque Holy Trinity Church, Bengeo, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, We are not aware of any Chapmore End memorial
Pre War
Born in 1897, in Bengeo, Hertford, to parents William and Eliza he had two brothers Horace and William and in 1911 they were living at Chapmore End, Ware and his father was a farm labourer.
Wartime Service
Joined the Hertfordshire Regiment on 21st February 1916 as Private 6124. After training in the UK he was sent to France in June 1916.
His unit saw action on the Somme at the battle for Ancre in November 1916, the final battle in the 1916 Somme campaign. In 1917 Ernest was transferred to the 17th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers who had suffered severe casualties during the battles on the Somme and did not return to major action for 12 months. From July 1917 they were taking part in 3rd Ypres (Passchendaele). Ernest was wounded in action on 31st July during the battle for Pilkem Ridge and died of his wounds in hospital 9 days later.
Acknowledgments
Terry & Glenis Collins, Jonty Wild, Jon Greengrass
