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2 Lieutenant Ernest Bertram Nelson

from IWM Collections

• 1 older comment, and then…
• Arnham said:

  www.hambo.org/kingscanterbury/view_man.php?id=208
  
  He was born in Kensington on the 30th of November 1890, the son of Sidney Herbert Nelson, engineer, of Barton Mill House, Canterbury.
  
  He was educated at prep school in St Leonards and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1904 to July 1909, gaining a Junior Scholarship in December 1905 and a Senior Scholarship in July 1908.
  
  On leaving school he went on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on a Parker Exhibition where he gained a 3rd Class Classical Tripos in 1911 and a 3rd Class History Tripos in 1912.
  
  He then left for India to work for the Bank of Bengal in Calcutta.
  
  On the outbreak of war he enlisted as a trooper in the Calcutta Light Horse, later obtaining a commission in the Indian Frontier Force, being first attached to the 33rd Punjabis and then to the 2nd battalion of the 8th Gurkha Rifles, seeing active service on the Indian Frontier as well as in France and Mesopotamia.
  
  He was attached to the 1st Battalion of his regiment and was hit a few miles north of Baghdad, dying a few hours later.

• Denise Jackson said:

  Baptised 7th Jan 1891 at St Barnabas, Kensington, son of Sidney Herbert and Matilda Constance Nelson. His baptism record notes that he was born at 15 Addison Gardens maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf... on 30th Nov 1890 and that his father was an Engineer.
  
  At the time of the 1891 census the Nelsons were visitors at The Elms, Ryden Road, Walton on Thames, Surrey. Sidney was a Sawmill Engineer and Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Ernest had one older brother, Thomas S Nelson aged one. (Thomas Sidney Nelson was a doctor in the RAMC who survived the war).
  
  By 1901 there were 3 sisters: Joyce, Phyllis and Olive. Ernest and his brother must have been away at boarding school. The family were living at Mill Cottage in Goring, Oxfordshire (this attractive property still exists maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=the+mill+cottage,+lock+a...) and Sidney described as Living on Own Means. They employed a Cook and a Nurse.
  
  In 1911 the family was living at Barton Mill House, Sturry Road, Canterbury, Kent and Ernest was an Undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Sidney and Matilda had been married for 22 years and of their 6 children 1 had died. Sidney Herbert described himself as Gentleman and the family employed a Cook.
  
  Ernest was 'of Barton Mill House' when probate was granted to his father on 1 Nov 1917. Effects £1450.

• Charlotte Czyzyk said:

  Help piece together the Life Stories of more than 8 million men and women who made a contribution during the First World War at www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/