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Age
19 Single
Private
43627
2nd/8th Bn., Worcestershire Regiment
Died
of wounds on
Friday 20th
December 1918
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Ernest was born in
Lichfield
, Staffordshire and, while he was only young, his father died.
Three years later his mother remarried a Mr Cox and the family
moved to
68 James Street
, Devonport. After leaving
school, Ernest moved north and began work at Sabdens Victoria Mill
employed as a weaver. He
took lodgings at the home of Mr and Mrs George Hope of
33 Whalley Road
, Sabden. He became an
active member of the village community playing for both the cricket and
football teams and attended the catholic church.
On
April 12th 1917
, at the age of seventeen, Ernest enlisted into the army and was posted
out to
France
in March 1918. In early
November 1918 Mr and Mrs Hope received a letter from the No. 38th
Casualty Clearing Station, France informing them that Private E. A.
Hadley was seriously ill, suffering from gunshot wounds to the face and
chest.
Ernest was moved to
the
Brookwood
Military
Hospital
,
Surrey
,
England
. In the second week of
December, Mrs Hope and her daughter, Hannah, made the long journey south
to visit their friend, Ernest. They
found him in a very bad way, suffering with breathing difficulties
and blinded from the gunshot wounds.
The Hopes had only been back in Sabden a few days when they
received word from Ernest’s mother that he had died from his wounds.
Ernest Alfred Hadley is buried at the
Brookwood
Military
Cemetery
,
Woking
,
Surrey
,
England
.
In Sabden he has been
remembered on both the School and Church Plaques.
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