Ernest William Walter Whiting

A Police Constable, Ernest died on 10th of October 1940 aged 34. 

Ernest was born at Battersea, London, on 21 September 1906, a son of William and Mildred Whiting. On 8 November 1909 Ernest became a pupil at Bildeston School. In 1911 his family lived at Bildeston, near Ipswich (note that the 1911 and 1921 Census Ernest is shown as Walter). In 1921 his family lived at 2 Russell Terrace, Fir Lane, Lowestoft, and by 1939 their address was 17 Fir Lane. 

In 1930 Ernest married Hilda Olive Smith, this was registered in the Mutford district. Ernest was a Police Constable with the East Suffolk Constabulary and in 1939 Ernest and Hilda lived at The Police Station, Samford. Subsequently Ernest became the police officer at Worlingworth and they lived at Worlingworth Police Station. 

In October 1940 an unexploded bomb was discovered at a field at Oak Tree Farm, Fingal Street, Worlingworth. Ernest was given the task of guarding the area while Sappers from 4 Bomb Disposal Section Royal Engineers were making the bomb safe. The bomb exploded killing four Sappers and Ernest.  

Ernest’s funeral was held at Worlingworth on Monday 14 October, followed by a cremation at Ipswich. Reverend Wilkes, the Rector of Worlingworth-with-Southolt, spoke about Ernest (see Norfolk and Suffolk Journal and Diss Express 18 October 1940, page7):

In the course of a sincere tribute of esteem to the memory of the departed as a friend of all in the Parishes and as their Police Officer, the Rector said that Ernest Whiting, during a year of extreme national and individual anxiety had shared fully amongst them a sheaf of personal graces, cheerfulness, kindness, gentleness and good fellowship, which many lesser men reserve solely for their own more intimate friends and relatives. As a Police Officer out of the abundance of his own high courage he had imparted to all a greater confidence and courage than was perhaps their natural want. To the older men and women at all times he gave counsel, guidance, service in full measure, pressed down and running over. To the little ones, when needed, the help of a good father, himself the father of young children. To the young men, he brought the example of a young man, full of the frailties of human nature exercising in himself and others the discipline to overcome them. The deepest sympathy went out to the widow and children, relatives and comrades from everyone in the Worlingworth area. 

Ernest, and the four Sappers, are commemorated by a memorial at the edge of the field in which the bomb exploded and each year a service held at the site to remember them. 

Ernest's sister, Beryl Whiting, died during the Waller Raid in 1942.