Name
Ernest Albert Widdows
16 December 1880
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/10/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
11111
Royal Fusiliers *1
9th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MONCHY BRITISH CEMETERY, MONCHY-LE-PREUX
I. O. 13.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Not on the Boxmoor memorials
Pre War
Ernest Albert Widdows (known as Albert) was born on 16 December 1880 in Shoreditch, London, the son of Charles and Martha Widdows, and baptised on 10 November 1885 at St Peter, London Docks, Wapping. At that time the family were living at 5 Green Bank and his father was a porter. He was one of five children.
On the 1881 Census they had moved to Fanshawe Street, Shoreditch and his father was working as a warehouseman and in 1891 they were living at 7 Market Street, Shoreditch.
His father died in Edmonton, London in 1899 and on the 1901 Census Albert was living in Wanstead, Essex, at 3 Lake Cottages, Snaresbrook Road, near Epping Forest. He was working as a Tea Packer for a grocery business.
He married Annie Gertrude Reed at All Saints, Harrow Weald, Middx on 26 January 1905 and gave his occupation as Gardener and his address as Sion House, Harrow Weald.
By the 1911 Census they were living at 3 Gardeners Cottages, Swains Lane, Highgate North, Middx with their children Doris and Henry where Albert was working as a Gardener in Highgate Cemetery. They had another child, Ida later the same year, born on 2 December 1911.
The family moved to Berkhamsted in 1915 and were living at 76 Shrublands Avenue, later moving to Boxmoor where they lived at 121 Horsecroft Road. On enlistment Albert and his family lived at "Clovelly", 25 Cowper Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
His widow later lived at 64 Kingston Road, Luton, Beds.
Wartime Service
He was called up in 1916 and enlisted in Watford in June where he joined the Royal Fusiliers (City of London) Regiment. He was sent to Dover for basic training and posted to the 9th (Service) Battalion before being sent overseas. He had trained as a Lewis gunner which was a skill identified by a badge issued to a fully trained soldiers.
He would have seen action in the First Battle of the Scarpe, followed by the Battle of Arleux after which the Battalion was engaged in holding positions east of Monchy le Preux.
Battalion war diaries recorded that they were in trenches on 21 October when at 5.00 pm the enemy fired on them along the support line and Cambrai Road. The Battalion artillery replied and about 60 of the enemy, who had left the front line, were caught by the fire. It was said that all was quiet by 6.15 pm. Sadly the casualties recorded were 2 killed and 8 wounded.
Albert was one of those killed on 21 October 1917, aged 36, and is buried at Monchy British Cemetery, Monchy-le-Preux, Nr Arras, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 10s and pay owing of £3 3s 5d. She also received a pension of £1 6s 3d for herself and her three children. His reg. no. is quoted with the prefix PS on many records.
*1 Probably more correctly (County of London) Bn.
London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles).
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com.,
