Lance Corporal Ernest Short

Ernest Short was born in Holmwood in August 1880 and was baptised at St. John’s church. His father James was a baker and it wasn’t until sometime between 1901 and 1911 that the Shorts moved to Betchworth and lived at Dillon Cottage. In 1901 Ernest was a groom for a draper and grocer in Headley, Hampshire and it was only his brothers Charles and William who were living with their parents by 1911. At that time Ernest was living at the Barley Mow in Reigate Road with the Burnhams as a ‘servant’. His age on the 1911 census appears to be 38, but he was only 31.

Elizabeth Burnham (née Field) had been born at the Barley Mow in 1879 and in 1904 she married Aaron Burnham. Prior to her marriage she had worked as a barmaid in Penge.

Shortly after their marriage, Ernest enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers and was sent to France in May 1916. He survived two years of fighting on the Western Front and was promoted to Lance Corporal. On May 10th 1918 Ernest Short was severely wounded and was moved to Rouen, to the No. 12 General Hospital. The hospital had been taken over by American personnel in 1917 and it was a nurse from St. Louis who wrote to Elizabeth Short: ‘I am sorry to tell you that your husband Lce-Corpl. Short is a patient in this hospital; he is suffering from a gunshot wound in the left hip and a partial fracture of neck of femur. The doctors are hopeful of his recovery and are seeing that everything possible is done for him. He is visited daily by the chaplain. Write often.’