Sergeant Ernest John Mears

Ernest John Mears was born in Morden c1889. By 1901 he was living with his father Edwin, a bricklayer, and two brothers and two sisters at 1 Monmouth Villas Morden. His mother’s name was not on the 1901 census so it’s not clear whether she had died or whether she was not in the family home at the time. Ernest was then 12 years old.

By 1911, at the age of 22, he had already enlisted and was serving as a Lance Corporal in the 1st Battalion, Highland Light Infantry. His regimental number was 10333. It is not known where he served prior to the outbreak of war. Records show, however, that by December 1914 the First Battalion had landed at Marseilles for service on the Western Front. It saw action in a number of battles in 1915, by which time Ernest had been promoted to the rank of Acting Company Quartermaster Sergeant.

Sergeant Mears was killed in action on 6 June 1915. The exact location and map reference of where his body was found is given on the burial return at the Rue-des-Berceaux Military Cemetary at Richebourg-L’Avoue. His grave registration report is entitled ‘exhumation and reburial’ suggesting that he may have been buried at a small local cemetery in the area before being taken to the main military cemetery where he is now buried at plot 2, row D, grave 27.

Ernest's name appears on one of the panels in the Lychgate at St. Lawrence Church, Morden, which serves as the parish war memorial and also on a brass plate in the Assembly Hall of Morden Primary School.