2nd Lieutenant Ernest Ewart Gladstone Alderwick of the 11th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action on this day, 26th August, in 1917.
Ernest was 31 years old when he died and according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, he was the son of Francis and Emily Alderwick, of Bristol and the husband of Florence A Alderwick of 4 Harcourt Road, Redland, Bristol. His medal index card is quite detailed and shows that he joined the Gloucestershire Regiment as a private in August 1916 (number 30580). He arrived in France on the 19th June 1917 and must have almost immediately been posted to the 93rd Training Reserve Battalion and then to the 2nd Battalion of the Dorset Regiment where he was appointed lance-corporal. Shortly after that he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant with the Suffolk Regiment.
Ernest was one of 34 Suffolk Regiment soldiers to die on this day and he is buried in Hargicourt Communal Cemetery Extension on the Aisne.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission states:
"Hargicourt was occupied by British troops in April, 1917, lost on the 21st April, 1918, and recaptured by Australian troops on the 18th September, 1918. The Cemetery was made in August, 1917, and January, September and October, 1918, beyond a German Extension of the Protestant Communal Cemetery; the 177 German graves have been removed, and the British Extension is now isolated. There are now over 70, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site."
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Sources:
Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Photograph courtesy of Oliver02 and Google Earth.
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