Name
Ernest Albert Norton
26 March 1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
08/10/1918
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
7911
Royal Fusiliers *1
23rd (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MASNIERES BRITISH CEMETERY, MARCOING
II. B. 14.
France
Headstone Inscription
GRANT HIM O LORD ETERNAL REST
UK & Other Memorials
Memorial Plaque, Memorial Hall, Bovingdon
Pre War
Ernest Albert Norton was born on 26 March 1894, the only son of Albert and Caroline Norton, and baptised on 22 April 1894 in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire. He had three younger sisters.
By the 1901 Census the family had moved to 165 Angel Road, Upper Edmonton, Middlesex, where his father was working as a Cellarman. They remained there in 1911 at which time Ernest was working as a Corn Merchant's Assistant.
Wartime Service
Ernest enlisted at Ponders End, initially as Private 3393, Middlesex Regiment, later transferring to the 23rd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers as Private G/7911, and went to France on 26 July 1915.
He would have seen action at the Battle of Loos in September/October 1915 and in the Battles of the Somme in 1916. The following year they were in action at the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line and the Battles of Arras and Cambrai.
Ernest was killed in action on 8 October 1918, aged 24, during the Battle of the Hindenburg Line (part of the Hundred Days Offensive, aimed at pushing back the Germans and retaking control of ground lost earlier in the war). He is buried in Masnieres British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs Caroline Norton, 165 Angle Road, Upper Edmonton, N18, ordered his headstone inscription: "GRANT HIM O LORD ETERNAL REST". She also received a war gratuity of £19 and pay owing of £9 0s 4d. She also received a pension of six shillings a week.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London) Bn. London Regiment.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox, Dick West, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk
