| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information
Eric was born in Beverley the 16 Jan 1898 and baptised at St Mary’s Church on 13 Mar 1898, the son of John Matterson Acklam, tailor and Emily (nee Rippon), who married in 1893. The family lived at 24 Albert Terrace and Belgrave Villas, Cartwright Lane. Eric became a printer’s apprentice at W. Green’s printers in Saturday Market, Beverley. From 1912-1914 he was a member of the Beverley Church lads’ Brigade and was considered to be “a very good lad though inclined to be somewhat lazy".
On 13 Mar 1914 Eric joined the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, a territorial force. He did only 36 days service with them before on 22 Apr 1914 he joined the Royal Navy as a boy sailor, attending HMS Ganges in Suffolk. He later spent time ashore at HMS Excellent gunnery school and in Jan 1917, he was wounded. He served on a range of ships, including the cruiser HMS Attentive. He reached the rank of Able-Seaman. Eric was awarded the War and Victory Medals as well as the 1914-15 Star.
Eric remained in the Royal Navy for 30 years and he received a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. During the Second World War he was stationed at HMS Dinosaur in Ayrshire, Scotland where tank landing craft training took place, probably in preparation for D-Day. On 4 Feb 1944, aged 46, at Heathfield Isolation Hospital at Ayr, Eric died of meningitis. He was later buried at St Mary’s Cemetery, Beverley.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |