Ernest Alfred Bobbitt

A Private with the 1st Battalion, Ernest died on 24th of October 1918 aged 38.

Ernest was born at Gunton, Lowestoft, on 23 June 1880, a son of George Alfred and Elizabeth Bobbitt. He was baptised at Saint Margaret’s Church on 3 October 1880. In 1881 his family lived at Warren House, Gunton, and in 1891 they lived at 9 Wollaston Road. In 1901 they lived at 69 Milton Road, and Ernest was a grocer’s assistant. 

On 5 February 1908 Ernest married Susannah Fisher at Saint Mary’s Church, Blundeston. In 1911 they lived at 29 Upland Road, Norwich, and Ernest was a grocer’s assistant. By 1914 they were living at East Rudham. By 1917 Their home was at 44 Edinburgh Road, Lowestoft.     

Ernest was living at East Rudham, near King’s Lynn, and working as a grocer’s manager, when he attested for the Army, at King’s Lynn, on 20 January 1916. He was placed on the Army Reserve and called up on 26 January 1917. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 235001. Ernest was posted to the 1/4th Battalion, in France, on 17 April 1917. 

On 14 May 1917 he was transferred to the Northamptonshire Regiment, service number 204774, and, on 10 June 1917, he was posted to the strength of the 4th (Reserve) Battalion but was attached to the 2nd Battalion and served with C Company. In November 1917 Ernest received a shrapnel wound to his left buttock and was evacuated to England on 27 November to undergo treatment at the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester. He was discharged from hospital on 15 January 1918 and granted furlough to 25 January, when he joined the 4th (Reserve) Battalion. Ernest returned to France on 12 June and joined the 1st Battalion. 

There is no precise information to say when, or where, Ernest was wounded, but he received a gunshot wound to his right arm. Based on the battalion’s dispositions, and the fact that Ernest died from his wounds at 5 Casualty Clearing Station, based at Vadencourt, it is likely that he was wounded either in the advance toward Wassigny on 17 October, in which there were 91 other ranks casualties, or the attack toward Catillon, on 23 October, in which 14 men were killed and 55 wounded.