Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Private

Army Number : 7376

Unit : 2nd Bn

Biography :

Home address given as Eaton, Lincolnshire. Enlisted at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. Served with the 2nd Bn during World War One. Killed in action Mesopotamia 8.3.1916, aged 29. He is commemorated on Basra Memorial, Iraq and on the memorial at Leicestershire Police Headquarters, Enderby.

Some information from the Police Remembrance Trust.

For more information visit: http://www.carillontower.org.uk/tigers

enlistment
Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire
United Kingdom
Source:9567212

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Ernest Wakefield, Private (7376), 1st & 2nd Battalions, Leicestershire Regiment

Ernest Wakefield was born in Bottesford in 1886 the son of Thomas and Sarah Ann Wakefield (née Tinkler).

At 18 years old Ernest enlisted in Melton Mowbray with ‘the Leicestershire Regiment in 1904 and served eight years with the regular forces, seven of which were spent in India.’ Serving as a Private he was stationed in Madras, Belgaum, Delhi, Bareilly and Ranikhet with ‘C’ Company, 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment.

In 1912 after leaving the Army Ernest joined the Leicestershire Constabulary. In April 1912 he and Agnes Louisa Tinkler were married at the Church of St. John the Baptist, Muston. Ernest and Agnes set up home in Burder Street, Loughborough, where Ernest was now stationed as a police constable. The couple had two children, George Ernest and Agnes.

Military Service:

On the declaration of war in August 1914 he ‘rejoined the colours’ with the 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment. On the 22nd September after just 12 days in France Ernest witnessed the first casualties from his battalion as a result of shelling and sniping (2 Privates, Killed. 1 Officer mortally wounded and 5 Privates wounded). Within three weeks the 1st Battalion was moved north to Bois Grenier near Armentières as part of the British Army’s defending of the Channel ports. Ernest Wakefield was injured sometime between the 14th to the 25th December. In many ways his injury must have been a relief. It brought him home to hospital in Manchester and ‘back to his family for a short time.’

In April 1916 Ernest returned to active service in the Armentières sector in France. He stayed there with the battalion until it was transferred to the Ypres Salient at the end of May. There it commenced ‘its long tour of duty in that unsavoury region, and trench casualties almost doubled immediately.' The battalion served in the Ypres Salient until its transfer to the Somme in July 1916. However, Ernest had succumbed to a second injury, this time suffering the effects of the first gas attack on the battalion at the end of June 1915. Ernest’s gas exposure necessitated removal to a London hospital and home convalescence. Perhaps he was initially unfit for active service abroad because he was posted on home service at Patrington, near Hull. His home service it enabled both Ernest and Agnes to act as witnesses at the wedding of her brother, Private Amos Tinkler on the 8th January 1916. Almost immediately after the wedding Ernest received orders to proceed to Mesopotamia. He was not posted back to the 1st Battalion and its subsequent engagements on the Somme. Instead he rejoined his original battalion the 2nd Leicestershires in the Middle East. They were posted as reinforcements to combat the deteriorating position of British Forces in Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia:

Ernest arrived in Basra towards the middle of February and travelled up the Tigris to the area south of Kut-al-Amara. The 2nd Battalion was no longer staffed by regular soldiers. It was now largely made up of new Kitchener Army volunteers with a leavening of those with regular army experience. Ernest Wakefield would be a valued member of the ranks, someone with pre-war experience and a survivor of early war actions in France. It is interesting that the report of his death in the Grantham Journal in April 1916 did not mention where he was killed. The situation in Mesopotamia was dire. The 2nd Leicestershires were sent to join the Kut Relief Force (The Tigris Army Corp). Prior to their arrival the India Corp had attempted to take Baghdad and were driven back to Kut where they were besieged. Between January and April 1915 the Kut Relief Force Force attempted to fight its way up the Tigris. Ernest arrived in time for the third attempt to relieve the besieged British force at Kut. General Aylmer devised a plan whereby his force would cross the Tigris for a straightforward attack on the Dujaila Redoubt in an attempt outflank the Turkish forces. Ernest Wakefield was killed in action on the 8th March, 1916. The attack on the Dujaila Redoubt failed as did the attempt to raise the siege at Kut-al-Amara. On the 29th April the British Commanders sought terms of surrender with the Turkish Army. 13,000 British and Indian officers and men passed into captivity. Ernest Wakefield was one of the 3,500 troops killed in the failed assault on the Dujaila Redoubt.

Ernest’s family did not hear of his death until almost a month later, on the 5th April. Ernest Wakefield has no known grave and was commemorated on the currently inaccessible Basra Memorial in Iraq. One of Ernest’s brothers (John) also served in France and there is a family story that Ernest and John saw each other once as the columns they were part of marched passed each other. One brother was going up the line as the other came out. The knowledge of that brief encounter must have brought some comfort to Agnes and Ernest’s extended family.

Date of Birth : 1887

Place of Birth : Muston, Nottinghamshire

Date of Death : 8.3.1916

Place of Death : Mesopotamia

Civil Occupation : Police Constable, Leicester Borough Police

Period of Service : 1910s

Conflicts : WW1

Places Served : India, France & Flanders, Mesopotamia