Page 102 - WW1 - 1917

Remembering Redditch Residents & WW1 Redditch Local History Society

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The Bromsgrove, Droitwich and Redditch Messenger – Saturday 15
September 1917

Two Headless Cross Soldiers Killed – Mrs Vale has received information to the
effect that her husband, Sergeant Ernest Alfred Vale, of Headless Cross, near Redditch, died
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on the 31 August from wounds received in action. The deceased was a member of the
R.F.A. (Redditch Battery) when war broke out, and at Easter, 1915, went to France. He was
24 years of age. Mrs Vale has received a letter from Lieut. S. G. Bennett stating that the
deceased had done a tremendous amount of useful work, and the whole battery mourned
his loss.. He was badly wounded but was probably unconscious until he died.

(On Ancestry site, Military records, Sergeant Ernest Vale Service No 830064, Territorial Force,
Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery, born and enlisted in Redditch, died of wounds,
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1 September 1917, at Advance Dressing Station, France & Flanders, aged 24. Buried Bard
Cottage Cemetery, Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium. Parents were Alfred and Ada Vale of
Redditch and his wife was Beatrice Mary Vale of 1A Mount Pleasant, Redditch. Ernest had
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enlisted 27 February 1910 at the age of 18 years 1 month and had been a cycle worker at
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Royal Enfield. At the time was living at 30 Evesham Road, Redditch. On 27 February 1914
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he signed up for a further 4 years. On his service records it stated that on 13 August 1917
firing a cartridge case split causing a blow-back, which had injured him, slight abrasion of
face. He was not to blame.)
Remembered on St Stephen’s war memorial, Redditch and St Luke’s war memorial, Headless Cross..
(On the 1911 census Ernest aged 19, Cycle Polisher, lived with his parents Alfred and Ada Vale, at 30 Evesham
Road, Headless Cross.

Page: 102 © RLHS 2014