6 August 2018

GREAT WAR CENTENARY: Ernest Haddow

Ernest Haddow was born in 1893 in Biggleswade, Beds, second of the five sons of James & Ellen (nee Milton).  Christened in the Parish Church on 1 June that year, he was my half-cousin twice removed.  By 1902 the family had moved to King's Walden in Hertfordshire, moving again before 1911 and ending up in St Albans.

Shortly after this, on 19 December 1911,  Ernest, aged 18 years and 9 months, and a mere 5 feet tall, enlisted in the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex) Regiment, signing on in Mill Hill.  He served in the UK until 1913 when he was sent out to the East Indies; returning home in November 1914.  The regiment was plainly sent to the Western Front in 1915 and Ernest served in the trenches, barring a few months at home recovering from a gunshot wound, until his death.

He died of wounds on 6 August 1918 and is buried in the Wailly Orchard Cemetery.

We will remember them.



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