| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Ernest was born in Beverley on 26 May 1896. He was one of eight children born to George Cattle and his wife Julia (nee Southwick). Both of his parents were born locally. George was a whitesmith. Ernest was brought up in Rhodes Yard, off Landress Lane and on Tindall Lane, off Butcher Row. At the end of the 1900s the entire family moved to Hull where they would spend the rest of their lives, initially living at Sophia Terrace in the city. Ernest worked in a sawmill as an oil miller alongside many other members of his family.
In WW1 Ernest initially served in the 7th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment as a private. He enlisted on 3 September1914 and after training arrived in France on 13 July 1915. The 7th saw action on the Somme in 1916 and in November of that year Ernest received serious gunshot wounds to his face and leg. He was returned back to the UK. In 1918 he was switched to the 2/7th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry who served in Russia from late 1918 into 1919, landing at Archangel. They were there to support the White Russian forces against those of the Reds-the Bolsheviks. The campaign was not a successful one. Ernest left the army in 1920. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals as well as the 1914-15 Star.
On his return to the UK Ernest was married to Eva Mckinley. Their first child was born on 27 July 1920 and they had a further four. The couple were divorced in 1937. Ernest continued to work as an oil miller then as a dock labourer. He died on 22 September 1954.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |