Author Topic: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers  (Read 5033 times)

Offline genjen

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8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« on: Friday 07 November 14 23:47 GMT (UK) »
Ernest Cooper Smith, born in Middlesbrough, November 1886, was the son of John Smith and Harriet Knight. He was always known by his family in Middlesbrough as Cooper but his young wife Lillian, in Sheffield, called him Ernie. They had a daughter Mabel, born in February 1914.

Cooper was a career soldier, joining the army on September 18th 1902. In June 1914, as he approached the date on which he was due for his final discharge after twelve years service, he had applied for a civilian post and received a glowing reference from Lt. Cl. Ainslie of the Northumberland Fusiliers. His discharge papers describe him as "sober, honest and trustworthy" and state that there were no instances of drunkenness in his twelve years of service.

Before he could take up his civilian career, with war looming, Cooper decided that he had to re-join the army to serve his country. In a letter to Lillian, he writes " ....remember you are a British Soldier's wife, who is not afraid to die for his country..........although our love is loyal, my country has more claim on me" On August 14th 1914, he landed in France.

Then, on 2nd November he wrote to Lillian saying that he was well but tells her about a friend who had been killed.

On November 7th, the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers were close to Ieper, at Herenthage Chateau on the Menen Road. The war diary for November 8th reads...."War Diary.: 4 a.m. received order to hold the line at all costs. Intermittent shelling and rifle fire throughout the day. About 5.30 p.m. the enemy left their trenches and charged our right. During the day our fire from our trench had been withheld. When the enemy charged a heavy rifle and machine gun fire from our trench was brought to bear on them and coming in the nature of a surprise did great execution and the enemy were repulsed with heavy losses. During the night the R.E. strengthened the position.
At the end of that day the diary reports that three men of the battalion had been killed, eleven wounded and sixty-one listed as missing. Among those whose bodies were never found, was Ernest Cooper Smith. With no known grave, his is one of the 54,403 names on the Menin Gate in Ieper.

Cooper's widow never re-married. She sent some of his possessions back to his family in Middlesbrough and remained in touch with them after the war was over.Their daughter, Mabel, grew up in Sheffield and in time, she married and had two children.

Some time in the early 1960s, my mother pointed out his name on the memorial in Middlesbrough. Cooper was her uncle - her father's eldest brother.

In the 1980s, when I started to play the concertina, she told me that there had been two of them in her house when she was growing up and that they had belonged to her uncle, Cooper.

I started researching my family history some years ago and at some point, I posted a photograph of Cooper, with his full name, onto the photo restoration boards here in Rootschat. A year or two later, I had a shocked reply from a new Rootschatter who had idly typed her grandfather's name into Google and found my post. The photograph which I had posted was one which she also had so there could be no doubt that we were talking about the same person. We chatted, discussed our lives and our families and reeled in astonishment when it turns out that we both play traditional and Morris music on the squeezebox and that for years, our paths have been crossing at one of our regular summer festivals. We decided that through Cooper, or Ernie as her family knew him, the music is in our genes!

Today, exactly one hundred years since his death, it seems a cruel irony that he was so close to leaving the army and to settling down to life with his wife and baby daughter but that, as a man who saw it as his duty to serve his country, he died at a time when people were still saying that the war would be over by Christmas.

As it is, I stand beneath the panel which bears his name whenever I go to the ceremony at the Menin Gate and shall do so again when I am there in December.











All Census Look Ups Are Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

ESS: Howe French Cant Annis Noakes Turner Marshall Makerow Duck Spurden Harmony
SCT: Howe Shaw Raitt Milne Forsyth Birnie Crichton Duncan McBeath Daniel Hay Robertson Jaffrey Smith McDonald Alexander Craighead
NRY: Bushby Smith Bland Iley Cunion Kendrew Thornbury Favell Lonsdale Crossland Rudd Pratt Gibson
WES; Dickenson Jackson Ewbank Waller
STS: White
SRY: Knight
DUR: Smith Littlefair
HAM: Williams Grose Lush Venson

Offline sonofdave

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 17 March 15 11:15 GMT (UK) »
Fascinating read, thank you for sharing.

My GGF also of the 1st Bn NF enlisted in 1904 and was on reserve working in Milford, Derbyshire in August 1914.

Pte. Abner Sanders embarked with the first draft on 13th August and was wounded near Pont Du Hem, La Bassee on 14th October 1914. Even though he received a terrible head wound he made it back to England where he died on 1st November at Connaught Hospital, Aldershot.

He left a 4 year old son (my Grandfather) and a 10 month old daughter.


Offline Mr Anon

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #2 on: Friday 19 May 17 01:15 BST (UK) »
Just found this fascinating post and it seems we may have the same great uncle Ernest.

My mother has a photo of Ernest in uniform and I posted it in Family History UK trying to get help in identifying the regiment.

Someone pointed me to this post and was amazed to read about Ernest. We suspected that he was killed in WW1 but I never expected to find such detail about him.

I'll attach the photo I have of Ernest and it would be great if you could confirm if we indeed have the same Uncle Ernest.

Best regards, Paul.

Offline genjen

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #3 on: Friday 19 May 17 09:46 BST (UK) »
Hello Paul,
Oh yes, that is most definitely the same man. How exciting.
Our side of the family always referred to him as Cooper but his granddaughter, Audrey, calls him Ernie.

How are you related to him. My grandfather was Cooper's brother, Thomas/ Tom Smith.

Cheers, Jen
All Census Look Ups Are Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

ESS: Howe French Cant Annis Noakes Turner Marshall Makerow Duck Spurden Harmony
SCT: Howe Shaw Raitt Milne Forsyth Birnie Crichton Duncan McBeath Daniel Hay Robertson Jaffrey Smith McDonald Alexander Craighead
NRY: Bushby Smith Bland Iley Cunion Kendrew Thornbury Favell Lonsdale Crossland Rudd Pratt Gibson
WES; Dickenson Jackson Ewbank Waller
STS: White
SRY: Knight
DUR: Smith Littlefair
HAM: Williams Grose Lush Venson


Offline Mr Anon

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #4 on: Friday 19 May 17 10:33 BST (UK) »
Hi Jen

Amazing. I can't believe how excited I am finding information about Ernest.

Ernest is my mother's uncle so my mothers, mothers brother. My grandmothers brother. That, I believe, makes Ernest my great uncle. I can't wait to let my mother know that I've found information about him.

The story of how Ernest became known to us is a strange one. I'll tell you about it in my next post/email if you are interested (is there a way of emailing each other via this site? I only joined last night).

It was my mothers brother who had the photo of Ernest and gave it to my mother. She kept it by her bedside for years. The only information we had was his name and that he may have been killed in WW1. That was it! I posted the photo on the Family History UK site asking if someone could identify the uniform but I've been given lots of information about him i.e. His army number, where he died, where he lived, his wife's name etc, and the best bit was a link to your post above. I couldn't believe it when I started reading it. I thought it was a wind-up! All this in less than 24 hours!

Is the colour picture posted below of Ernest? Did you post that?

Regards, Paul Rose

Offline genjen

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #5 on: Friday 19 May 17 10:52 BST (UK) »
You need to make one more public post in here and then we can use the private message system to exchange email addresses.
I am away from home at the moment and don't have my family tree information with me but will be home early next week and will be very happy to share things with you.
It is exciting isn't it! When Audrey found my post simply by putting his name into Google, she was absolutely blown away by it.
We are also both in touch with another cousin, Judy, who is Cooper's great niece too.
Can you tell me your grandmother's name. I am trying to work out which sister she must have been.
All Census Look Ups Are Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

ESS: Howe French Cant Annis Noakes Turner Marshall Makerow Duck Spurden Harmony
SCT: Howe Shaw Raitt Milne Forsyth Birnie Crichton Duncan McBeath Daniel Hay Robertson Jaffrey Smith McDonald Alexander Craighead
NRY: Bushby Smith Bland Iley Cunion Kendrew Thornbury Favell Lonsdale Crossland Rudd Pratt Gibson
WES; Dickenson Jackson Ewbank Waller
STS: White
SRY: Knight
DUR: Smith Littlefair
HAM: Williams Grose Lush Venson

Offline Mr Anon

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #6 on: Friday 19 May 17 11:09 BST (UK) »
Hi Jen

Ok re using private messages (I should qualify after this one).

My grandmothers name was Mary Ann Smith (c1897-1963). She was deaf/mute. Is that name familiar to you? She married John Pattison (1892-1961).

I have just read out your story above to my wife and daughter and got quite emotional. I wasn't expecting that! We also looked at the colour photo posted on this thread and we don't think it's of Ernest. Are we correct? I think it may have been posted by the person who has also replied to your post.

I'm going to call my mother and let her know 😉

Great 'speaking' with you.

Regards, Paul

Offline genjen

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #7 on: Friday 19 May 17 11:16 BST (UK) »
Oh yes, my mum talked about her aunt Mary Ann, so the name is very familiar to me. Also, through all the censuses and family research, I do feel as if I know all of these people.
I have a huge file on my family history. I'm looking forward to adding more now!

The colour photograph is not our great uncle. It was posted by someone else in relation to the WW1 aspect of the story

I shall send my email address via PM now that you have made your three posts.
All Census Look Ups Are Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

ESS: Howe French Cant Annis Noakes Turner Marshall Makerow Duck Spurden Harmony
SCT: Howe Shaw Raitt Milne Forsyth Birnie Crichton Duncan McBeath Daniel Hay Robertson Jaffrey Smith McDonald Alexander Craighead
NRY: Bushby Smith Bland Iley Cunion Kendrew Thornbury Favell Lonsdale Crossland Rudd Pratt Gibson
WES; Dickenson Jackson Ewbank Waller
STS: White
SRY: Knight
DUR: Smith Littlefair
HAM: Williams Grose Lush Venson

Offline anth9880

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Re: 8th November 1914, Ernest Cooper Smith, 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers
« Reply #8 on: Monday 01 October 18 21:15 BST (UK) »
Hi Gengen I have just read this post with an amazed but sombre feeling. My GGF a Private Luke Kearney 8864 of the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers was Killed in action on the 9th of November 1914. What is strange is that it appears he died one day after Ernest. However the details are remarkably similar. On the day that Luke died 3 men including himself were killed, the citation is near enough the same stating the same area and intermittent artillery and rifle fire throughout the day. He is also remembered on the Menin gate. A family story which has been passed down from my grandmother states that Luke and two other men were together when they were struck by an artillery shell. What rank was Ernest? Just as the story goes Luke died with a Lieutenant and an nco a sergeant I think. We never really thought much of the story until we started doing some research and we in fact found out the casualty figures and diary for the day. I'm trying to currently find out the men named in the diary. I think there is a fair probability that my Great great grandfather Luke died together with Ernest. The story just seems too coincidental.I would love to find out more.