| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Green's Almanac records a Drummer Ernest Ewen, the son of John Ewen of Swinemoor Lane, of the 5th Yorks Regt, But Ernest was born and baptised Ernest Ewen Foster, the son of John Thomas Ewen and Annie Foster, of Flemingate. He was born on 9 April, 1897 and baptised on the 28th in the Beverley Minster.
Ernest Ewen Foster joined 5th Battalion Yorks Hussars (Alexandra, Princess of Wales Own) on 25 Apr 1912, aged just 15. At the time he lived on Swinemoor Lane with his parents and worked at Cook, Welton and Gemmel, as a labourer. He started with the rank of boy in 1912 and gave a total of 4 years and 320 days service. He spent most of the pre war years working at the shipyard and soldiering with the territorials. When war broke out he was a year away from being old enough to be sent to the front.
His time finally came on 19 Apr 1915 when he was shipped out to France. On 26 Apr he was wounded during the battle of Ypres whilst fighting an action with 150th (York and Durham) Brigade/50th (Northumbrian) division at St. Julien, when he was shot in the hand and knee. The 11 May 1915 sees him in hospital in France but, by the 31st he was back on the front. On 5 Sep 1915 he was fined two francs for being deficient of personal equipment. The following year on 6 Feb 1916 he was admitted sick to hospital and discharged again 8 days later to rejoin the battalion. Whatever illness he suffered, possibly due to his previous gunshot wounds, the army saw fit to send him back home to Beverley, where he was assigned to munitions duty at Cook, Welton and Gemmel until his eventual discharge at the age of 19, on 10 Mar 1917.
For his part in the war Ernest was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Ernest Ewen Foster again signed up for the regiment after the war on 19 June 1920.
In 1917, after his part in the war was over, Ernest married Ethel Fairfield, the daughter of Harry and Mary Jane Fairfield of Holderness Road, Hull. Ernest gives no details for his father on their marriage certificate, though his address is Swinemoor Lane at the time. Military Pension records mention his wife, firstborn child, Ernest, and his father John Thomas and also give his address as Swinemoor Lane in 1920. Ernest and Ethel had four sons and a daughter over the course of the next 16 years. Ernest went through several jobs, being a boiler maker, a wire and electrical dealer and eventually an aircraft fitter.
Ernest Ewen Foster passed away on 29 Oct 1967 at the age of 70 and Ethel, his wife of 60 years, died at the age of 87 in 1986.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |