Ernest Taylor
Date of birth: c1897
Date of death: 18.9.1918
Area: Knottingley
Regiment: Royal Field Artillery
Family information: Son of William and Elizabeth Taylor of Fishergate, Ferrybridge
Rank: Gunner
Service number: 26839
War Service
Ernest Taylor was part of “D” battery, 112th Bde, Royal Field Artillery as a Gunner with the service number 26839. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website he died on 18th September 1918 (www.roll-of-honour.com gives his date of death as 18th August 1918), aged 21 and was buried at Tincourt New British Cemetery, Somme Plot VIII Row C Grave 15.
The villages of Tincourt and Boucly were occupied by British troops in March 1917, during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. From the following May until March 1918, Tincourt became a centre for Casualty Clearing Stations. On 23rd March 1918 the villages were evacuated and they were recovered, in a ruined condition, about the 6th September. From that month to December 1918, Casualty Clearing Stations were again posted to Tincourt. The cemetery was begun in June 1917 and used until September 1919. After the Armistice it was used for the reburial of soldiers found on the battlefield or buried in small French or German cemeteries.
Family Life
Ernest was born c1897. He was the son of William Sanderson and Elizabeth Taylor nee Bath. They had married on 2nd August 1880 at St Botolph’s Church, Knottingley.
In the 1911 census he was shown as doing “Odd work”, living at Fishergate, Ferrybridge with his widowed mother and siblings.