Pte 20506 Ernest Yates

Ernest Yates was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in late 1887, the son of Henry Yates and his wife Ellen (née Moss). Henry, born in Manchester, and Ellen, from Macclesfield, married in Macclesfield in 1879 and had six surviving children, all boys.  Ernest had older brothers Thomas, Henry, and Fred, and younger brothers Robert and John.

 

Congleton, Macclesfield, and other towns in the region were famous for their silk-weaving, and many people in the area were employed in the silk industry.

 

In 1891 the family, with four children, is living at 7 Gosling Street, Macclesfield. His father, 31, works for the railway, his mother, 30, is a silk winder, Thomas, 10, is a schoolboy and silk piecer, Henry is 7, Fred 4, and Ernest 3.  Also in the household are his widowed maternal grandmother Mary Ann Moss, 61, a silk winder, and lodger Eliza Ann Yates, 17, a silk piecer.

 

By 1901 they have moved to central Manchester, living at 1 Homer(?) Street.  His father is not listed in the household, his mother Ellen, 40, is head, with six sons ages 1-20.  Ernest is 13.

 

Ernest married Ann Simpson on 26th December 1908 in St. Thomas, Ardwick.  Ernest 21, gives his occupation as carter, Ann gives her age as 20 (she added a year or two), they give their address as 46 Robert Street.  Their first child, William Ernest, was born on 17th December 1909. 

 

In 1911 Ernest, 23, and Ann, 20, are living at 17 Robert Street, Ardwick, with son William, age 1. Ernest is a carter for a railway company.  Another child, a daughter Ann, was born on 31st December 1912.

 

Ernest enlisted in Manchester on 5th September 1914, as Private 20506, joining the 12th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment, giving his age as 26 years and 9 months.  He is described as being 5’5 and a half inches tall, weighing 141 lbs, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes, and light hair. He gives his religion as Wesleyan, and his wife Ann as his next of kin, at Tipping Street, Ardwick, later changed to 17 Robert Street, off New York Street.  Ann was paid a separation allowance of £1-12s-6d until 11/5/1919.

 

His service record survives and shows - 

8/9/1914 posted to 12th Bn

17/9/1914 appointed paid Lance Corporal

19/11/1914 appointed Acting Corporal 

 

at Whitley Camp, Surrey -

16/3/1915 severely reprimanded for insubordination to a senior N.C.O.

 

at Rollestone Camp, Salisbury Plain -

16/4/1915 severely reprimanded for being absent from inspection parades

16/4/1915 reverted to Pte at own request

20/4/1915 forfeited 5 days’ pay and 10 days confined to barracks for being absent without leave from tattoo until 4:45 a.m.

 

Ernest embarked for France with his battalion, disembarking on 24th July 1915.  His son John Frederick was born on 11th January 1916.

 

22/5/1916 to 62 Field Ambulance, cellulitis, face(?)

23/5/1916 appointed unpaid L/Cpl

25/5/1916 to duty

12/8/1916 appointed Acting L/Cpl 

26/1/1917 to 87 Field Ambulance, P.U.O. (fever of unknown origin)

31/1/1917 transferred to U.K.

 

1/2/1917 Birmingham War Hospital, trench fever

29/3/1917 appendix removed

25/6/1917 discharged from hospital

6/7/1917 posted to Prescot Command

31/8/1917 posted 3rd Garrison Bn K.L.R., Cork, Ireland 

 

20/11/1917 embarked for Mediterranean

27/11/1917 posted to 14th Bn K.L.R.

12/12/1917 disembarked Salonika

?/1/1918 arrived Base Depot as instructor

2/6/1918 rejoined

?/6/1918 embarked Itea, Greece

 ?/6/1918 disembarked Taranto, Italy

 

Aboncourt area, France -

24/6/1918 when on active service committed an act prejudice to good order and military discipline in that at Le Tel when told by 21146 C.S.M. Potter to take a cigarette out of his mouth he stepped out of the ranks and tore his Lance Corpl’s stripes from both arms 

10/7/1918 awarded 14 days Field Punishment No.1 

 

It is not known whether the punishment was carried out.  On 8th August 1918 the Hundred Days Offensive began, the Allied push that would eventually end the war. On 13th of August 1918 the 14th Bn were absorbed by the 18th Bn K.L.R., becoming the 18th (Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry) The King’s (Liverpool Regiment). 

 

On 7th October 1918 the battalion, in a rapid advance, arrived at the Hindenburg line.  Ernest was killed in action on 18th October 1918.  He was buried close to where he fell, and his grave marked with a cross.  In 1920 his body was found, identified by his name on the cross and his clothing, and reburied in Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau, Nord, France, where he now rests. 

After the Battle of Le Cateau (26 August 1914), the town remained in German hands until the middle of October 1918. The original cemetery (Plot III) was made by the 50th (Northumbrian) Division after the fighting of 17 October; the name of Highland Cemetery is suggestive at once of the comparatively high ground on which it stands and of the 32 graves of the 13th (Scottish Horse) Battalion, Black Watch, found in this plot. The cemetery was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when graves of October and November 1918 were brought in from isolated positions on all sides of Le Cateau. Highland Cemetery now contains 624 First World War burials. The cemetery was designed by Charles Holden.

 

His family learned of his fate about three weeks after he died, just as the war was ending.  They placed notices in the Manchester Evening News on 11th November 1918 (Armistice Day):  

 

 

His children were 8, 5, and 2 years old when Ernest was killed.  He earned his three medals, which Ann signed for, as well as his Memorial Scroll.  His widow Ann, at 17 Robert Street, Ardwick, Manchester, received Ernest’s effects of £33-1s-6d and a pension of £1-9s-7d a week.  A grant of £8 was paid;  Ann was entitled to a War Gratuity of £24.  She remarried in 1920.

 

Ernest is commemorated on the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Memorial situated inside Manchester Victoria station.