ERNEST WEAR
Ernest Wear was born in 1882 in Oakridge Lynch, Bisley, the son of Jesse Wear, a tiler and plasterer, and his wife Elizabeth Jane nee Gardiner.
He married Annie Duffort at Slad on Christmas Day 1905 and by 1911 the couple were living in Bospin Lane, Woodchester with their four year old son, Ernest Jack. Ernest senior was a house decorator working for a builder.
Ernest enlisted as a private first in the Gloucestershire Regiment and then in the 2nd Battalion of Princess Charlotte of Wales' (Royal Berkshire) Regiment. From his medals, it can be assumed that his service abroad started after the beginning of 1916.
He was killed in action at Passchendaele, during the Third Battle of Ypres on 1 August 1917 aged 35. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate.
Medals Victory and British War
Background
The Battle of Passchendaele, also referred to as the Third Battle of Ypres, took place from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, 5 miles from a railway junction at Roulers, which was vital to the supply system of the German 4th Army. The battle became infamous for the number of casualties and the mud.
The infantry attack began on 31 July. Constant shelling had churned the clay soil and smashed the drainage systems. The left wing of the attack achieved its objectives but the right wing failed completely. Within a few days, the heaviest rain for 30 years had turned the soil into a quagmire, producing thick mud that clogged up rifles and immobilised tanks. It eventually became so deep that men and horses drowned in it.
He married Annie Duffort at Slad on Christmas Day 1905 and by 1911 the couple were living in Bospin Lane, Woodchester with their four year old son, Ernest Jack. Ernest senior was a house decorator working for a builder.
Ernest enlisted as a private first in the Gloucestershire Regiment and then in the 2nd Battalion of Princess Charlotte of Wales' (Royal Berkshire) Regiment. From his medals, it can be assumed that his service abroad started after the beginning of 1916.
He was killed in action at Passchendaele, during the Third Battle of Ypres on 1 August 1917 aged 35. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate.
Medals Victory and British War
Background
The Battle of Passchendaele, also referred to as the Third Battle of Ypres, took place from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, 5 miles from a railway junction at Roulers, which was vital to the supply system of the German 4th Army. The battle became infamous for the number of casualties and the mud.
The infantry attack began on 31 July. Constant shelling had churned the clay soil and smashed the drainage systems. The left wing of the attack achieved its objectives but the right wing failed completely. Within a few days, the heaviest rain for 30 years had turned the soil into a quagmire, producing thick mud that clogged up rifles and immobilised tanks. It eventually became so deep that men and horses drowned in it.