Private Ernest Woodcraft
Serving Soldiers' Biographies
Ernest was born in Bower Lane Eaton Bray to John Woodcraft a Quarryman at Totternhoe Lime and Elizabeth (Lizzie) nee Fountain.
In 1911 at the age of only 14 Ernest was living with the Stone Family from Northall in Hemel Hempstead working as a Mill Hand in the Print trade possibly at John Dickinsons a major fim in the area.
It is not known as yet when Ernest joined up but he is listed in the Dunstable Year Book of 1916 as being in the Bedfordshire Regiment but on the Absent Voters List of 1918 he is down as being in the Royal Engineers.
Woodcraft Ernest Bower Lane 276146 80 BGW co CME works RE
He is also listed on the St Marys Church Roll of Honour for Eaton Bray and is also on the war memorial at both the Church and Wesleyan Chapel although there is no information on the Roll of Honour web site.
Information from Bedford and Luton Archives gives the St Albans Diocesan Casualty list for Eaton Bray which has Ernest Woodcraft as a Private in the 42nd Highlanders the Black Watch or more properley the Royal Highlanders.
There is a Medal Card on the Ancestry site of a Ernest WOODCROFT who served in the Gloucestershire Regiment the Royal Engineers and the Royal Highland Regiment wining the Victory and British Medals but not the 1914-15 Star suggesting he was called up in 1916.
On the CWGC site E WOODCROFT appears as a casualty on the 27th December 1918 6 weeks after the end of hostilities.
Not known how he died but could have been an accident or even Spanish Flu which was rife at the time.
Buried in Cambrai East Military Cemetery Grave 1V A 4