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T4/211763 No.1 Company 56th Division Train, Army Service Corps
Ernest Smith was born in 1876 in Sudbury, one of six surviving children of John and Emma Smith. Both his parents were employed as silk weavers and the family lived in Gregory Gardens before moving to 21 Station Road.
In 1902 Ernest married Hester Jane Brown in Sudbury and they lived in Jubilee Terrace, Girling Street with their three children, William, Elsie and Doris. Like his parents Ernest worked in the silk industry employed as a mechanic for Stephen Walters & Sons. He was also a Territorial and served with the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Suffolk Regiment before transferring for four years with the Army Service Corps (T/151), his service record describes him as 5ft 4½ ins in height with a 32½ inch chest.
Out the outbreak of war Ernest re-enlisted serving on the home front until November 1916 when he embarked for France. On 30 October 1918 he was involved in a fatal accident when he fell against the back wheel of a lorry being driven at three miles per hour by Private Thomason as it turned a corner onto the Haspres Road on the way from Noyelles-sur-Selle. The driver heard a cry and found Ernest lying in the road bleeding from a serious head wound. He had a fracture to the base of his skull. Nobody was found to be to blame following evidence given by an officer and men of the West Yorkshire Regiment who were there at the time.
Ernest died of his injuries aged 43 on 31 October 1918 only eleven days before the Armistice and lies buried in Auberchicourt British Cemetery, Nord, France. (His service records show date of death as 30 October 1918; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as 31 October 1918).
A Cross of Remembrance was laid by his grave in 2016. Ernest was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
His younger brother Harry lost his life thirteen months earlier serving with the Suffolk Regiment in Belgium. He is also remembered on the Sudbury War Memorial.
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