Private Ernest Tuffield Dalwood
| Date of Birth | c. 1894 |
|---|---|
| Age at Death | 22 |
| Date of Death | 1 April 1916 |
| Service Number | 2328 |
| Military Service | Royal Army Medical Corps |
| Merton Address | |
| Local Memorial | Mitcham Parish Church |
Additional Information
Ernest was baptised on 18 March 1894 in Holy Trinity Church Paddington. His father, Henry Frederick Wadham Dalwood, was a chemist and his mother was Laura, nee Tuffield.
The 1901 census shows the family living at 65 Blythe Road, Hammersmith and Ernest had 3 brothers, Harry, Lionel (probably his twin as he was also aged 7) and Hugh. Ernest is not shown on the census with his family as he spent that night in the West London District Hospital.
By the 1911 census, Ernest was boarding at 10 Dunsmore Road, Balham and working as a clerk. His brothers Lionel and Hugh were also boarding there; Lionel was working as a clerk and 14 year old Hugh as an assistant in a bakers. His parents were living in a “Common Lodging House, 9 Church Row, The Plain, Wandsworth” along with a number of other people.
Ernest enlisted at Newport, Essex in the Royal Medical Corps, 2nd/5th London Field Ambulance as Private 2328. He died at Sutton Veny, a village near Warminster and Salisbury Plain where many Troops were barracked whilst doing their training prior to being sent to France. Soldiers arrived direct from their homes on call up and a villager commented:
"You'd see them marching through Tytherington from Heytesbury Station. They didn't have their uniforms yet, and you could tell what they had been - the fishermen in their jerseys, and the clerks in their stiff collars".
Both sides of the Norton Road from Leys Lane were trenches, and troops would live in them for a week at a time with food being brought out as would occur in war. The impact of all these troops on village life was enormous, and both sides realised they had to get onto together. Village women took in soldiers' laundry, and several snack shops and tea huts were built for the mutual benefit of both parties.”
It would appear that Ernest was taken ill before his training was complete as he died here on 1 April 1916 and is buried in the Mitcham Church Road Burial Ground P196.