BORN HULL 1895. ENLISTED 14/9/14 HULL. MARRIED ETHEL MAY KEMP AT ST MARYS ON 11.2.18. WAS A POW GASSED. LABOURER.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ERNEST SMETHURST 3/6334. Tonight we have a tale of two Ernest Smethurst’s. Born a few months apart as 1895 became 1896, one the eldest of five children to Alfred and Kitty Smethurst of 6 Ash Grove, Withernsea Street; the other, the third of six children to Mary Louise Smethurst of 12 Lockwood Street. Both men were employed as Labourers. One married Ethel May Kemp in 1916 and raised yet another Ernest Smethurst until his death in 1934; the other joined the army at the start of the First World War and died in German hands on 29th July 1918. Unfortunately fate has decreed that history cannot tell us which man is which. Ours enlisted on 14th September 1914, originally in the 3rd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment before being transferred to the 10th. He is buried in Lille Southern Cemetery, and was 23 years old.
