Ernest's Story.
Ernest was born in the parish of St Paul's C of E Church, Portwood, Stockport, in the summer of 1893. Nothing is known of his life except it is known he enlisted into the army in the town and his service number indicates this was in August 1914, within days of war being declared. His medal index card shows he went to France 19 July 1915.
The 9th Cheshires went into action on 1 July on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. It is probable that Ernest came through these days unscathed. After a few days in a reserve area, on 7 July, they moved back to the front line at positions recorded as the "Heligoland trenches". There is no mention of casualties in the Battalion's War Diary for either the 7th or 8th. The 7th was a quiet day but the Diary records that about 7.30pm on the 8th "the enemy started shelling the front line and support line heavily with 5.9, 4.2 and lachrymatory shells.” Ernest is buried at Warloy-Bailllon which is only about 8 kilometres behind the front line and this suggests that he probably died the same day as he was wounded, probably by shrapnel from one of the high explosive shells. He would have received attention from the Battalion's medical officer before being evacuated further down the casualty chain. There was probably a Main Dressing Station operating at Warloy. These were intermediate medical facilities where a casualty might be stabilised before being passed further to the rear to a Casualty Clearing Station (in modern terms, a field hospital).