Ernest William Westerman

WWI Roll of Honour

By Lynette Wray

Ernest William Westerman

Military History:        

Regiment:                               Royal West Kent Regiment

Rank:                                      Private

Regimental Number:              G/22418    

Date of Enlisting:                    31.1.1918

Date of death:                         4th quarter 1970

Cemetery/ Memorial:            

UK Cemetery/Memorial:       St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour

Ernest (aka William Ernest) enlisted at Bedford, Bedfordshire on 31st January 1918.  He was posted as Private to the 3rd to the Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs), Regimental Number 25566, on 8th February 1918.  On 10th July 1918 he embarked for the Western Front, France and Flanders.  After having initially spent a few weeks in a hospital in Trouville for a minor ailment he was transferred to Etaples where he re-joined his battalion on 14th December 1918. On 1st March 1919 he transferred to the 6th Battalion (Service) of the Royal West Kent Regiment, Regimental Number G/22418. In June 1919 Ernest suffered from pleurisy, was admitted to a field hospital and evacuated back to England.  After two weeks furlough at home Ernest was posted to the regimental depot until he was demobbed at the end of the War.

Ernest was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal

Ernest survived the War and died in the October 1970.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

Family History:

Date of Birth:                4.12.1899

Birth Place:                   Ashwell, Hertfordshire

Residence:                    Ashwell, Hertfordshire

Marriage:                      3.11.l923

Ernest was born on the 4th December 1900 at Ashwell, Hertfordshire, the second son of Herbert George and Nellie Sarah Jane (nee Westerman) Westerman. He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell until the end of November 1913 when, according to the school records, he left to take work as a bottle washer at a brewery having reached exemption age.  The 1939 census shows him working a slinger crane at a steel foundry.

Ernest married Mary Pettengell in the Royston District on 3rd November 1923.  They had two children, Joyce Muriel born in 1924 and Ernest George born in 1926.

Ernest died at Ashwell in October 1970 and was cremated (probably at Royston, Cambridgeshire) on 16th October 1970.

Ernest’s brother George also saw active service in the War and survived.

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