Taylor, Ernest William

BORN PRESTON 1894. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SON OF MR GEORGE & MARGARET FRANCIS TAYLOR OF 47 ARUNDLE STREET, HULL. DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 14/04/1918, AGED 24. HIS BROTHER, DAWSON DIED 6 MONTHS LATER.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ERNEST WILLIAM TAYLOR 12/1035. Born 1894, the eldest of four children to George and Margaret Taylor of 47 Arundel Street, Holderness Road, Hull. One of the original Pals, Ernest was a Dock Labourer before the war but enlisted in the fight for King and Country in early 1915 and became a part of the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. He served in Egypt, on the Somme and at Oppy Wood before being fatally injured on 12th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. He was evacuated to either 2nd or 15th Casualty Clearing Stations at Ebblinghem, but died of wounds on 14th April. He was buried at Ebblinghem Military Cemetery; he was 24 years old. Once again, it is impossible to describe the chaos of those Field Hospitals and the lack of staff or adequate medical supplies to cope with a sudden massive influx of wounded men such as accompanied a full-scale attack. Men were simply prioritised as to who might have a feasible chance of survival, and the rest comforted as well as time allowed and left to die. Did Ernest die in spite of the efforts of surgeons to save him, or did he simply die in a forgotten corner unnoticed? We’ll never know. His brother, Sgt, Dawson Taylor, 7th EYR, died of wounds in captivity, just after the war ended, on 15/11/1918, aged 30.