L/Cpl 49116 Wallington Ernest Pope

In 1891 the family is living at 15 Steel Street, Chester.  His father is a clothier’s assistant, Ernest is 6 months old.

 

By 1901 they have moved to 139 St. Anne Street. His father is 34, a pawnbroker, his mother is 40, Ernest is 10 and Frances 8.

 

He attended St. Paul’s School, Boughton, Chester, the family living at 24 Beaconsfield Street, and also Chester City Grammar School. When he left school in 1904 he went to work as a clerk for the Post Office.  The school records show his father’s occupation as pawnbroker. 

 

His father died in 1908, aged 41.

 

The 1911 census finds Ernest living with his widowed mother at 2 Trafford Street, Chester (the address 79-81 St. Anne Street is written and crossed out; this location is on the corner of Trafford Street and is the business premises.)  His mother is 50, a pawnbroker, and Ernest is 20, a pawnbroker’s assistant.  In 1912 he was a witness in a case of theft from the shop by a group of boys who were found guilty and given strokes of the birch as punishment.

 

He married Mary McWaters on 4th August 1913 in Frodsham, Cheshire and their son Ernest Bailey was born in Runcorn district on 14th July 1914.

 

He enlisted in Chester and was originally Private 5321 Cheshire Regiment. He was subsequently transferred to the 17^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment with the service number 49116. 

 

His name appeared in the list of K.L.R. Wounded published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 14th September 1917. At that time the battalion had been in the Ypres Salient since late May, and the Battle of Third Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, had begun on 31st July.  He recovered from his wounds and returned to his unit. 

He was serving in the 17^th Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment, as Lance-Corporal No 49116 when he was killed in action on the 24^th March, 1918, aged 27, during the German Spring Offensive.

"The 17th & 18th King's of the 30th Division where in the neighbourhood of Verlaines on 24th March 1918 ...continuous Enemy Shell Fire and Machine Gun fire from 1.a.m the night of 23/24 th.  Dawn broke as usual with mist covering the ground. At 8 a.m the Enemy's guns shelled the front branches and shortly afterwards the Germans came on in strength. Step by Step disputing almost every yard of ground the Division fell back fighting all the way over the four miles of country to the Canal du Nord.  Officers and men were by now absolutely exhausted, for they had been fighting continuously for three days and nights."

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

International Red Cross records, in a list dated 13th July 1918, show that his identity disc was sent in to Central Office for personal effects, no further details.

 

His son was 3 years old when Ernest was killed, and Mary 28.

 

His widow Mary at 7 Brassey Street, Boughton, Chester, received his Army effects and a War Gratuity of £8.  She received a pension of £1-13s-4d a week for herself and child.

 

His sister, married and the mother of three, died in 1922 at the age of 30.  

Having lost her husband and both of her children, his mother died in 1925, aged 63.

 

In 1939, on the eve of World War Two, his widow Mary and son Ernest are living at 94 Brook Lane, Chester.  Mary, now 49, is a school teacher.  Ernie is 25, articled to a chartered accountant.  He married in 1941 and had a daughter. 

 

Ernie joined the R.A.F. in WW2 and served as a navigator on a Halifax bomber.  His plane was shot down on the night of 24-25th June 1943 over Holland, on a bombing mission to Wuppertal.  The pilot and flight engineer went down with the plane while the rest of the crew bailed out.  Ernie was one of four crew who made successful landings. He was captured the next day and spent the rest of the war in Stalag Kopernikus in Poland. While at the camp he had his wife send him accounting text books so that he could continue his studies. Shortly after his release and return to England in 1945, he got a job as an accountant with the Shell Oil Company in London. (Information from AircrewRemembered.com.) 

 

Mary never remarried and died in 1953, aged 63.  Ernie died of a heart attack in Kingston Upon Thames in 1976 at the age of 61.

 

Wallington Ernest Pope is commemorated on 

Chester War Memorial, Chester Town Hall

The Cheshire Roll of Honour

 

He is also remembered on his parents’ headstone in Overleigh Cemetery, Chester:

 

His name is recorded in the Chester Observer 27th Dec 1919

CHESTER'S HEROIC DEAD

T h e  W a r  R o l l  o f  H o n o u r

Gift by Sir John M. Frost

Below we publish the Chester Roll of Honour containing the names of no fewer than 697 citizens, officers, N.C.O's, and men who made the supreme sacrifice during the Great War in the service of their King and Country. The list has been officially compiled with a view to placing it on permanent record on the Roll of Honour, which the ex-mayor (Sir John M. Frost) has generously offered to present to the city. Its preparation has entailed considerable labour owing to the obvious difficulties with which it has been attended, and the valuable assistance given in the work by the Chief Constable (Mr J. H. Laybourne) calls for special acknowledgement. Every care has been taken to make it as complete and accurate record, but should it be necessary to make any additions or corrections, relatives or friends of the fallen are requested to communicate particulars without delay to the Chief Constable so that they may be included in the permanent Roll before it is sculptured or cast. A beautiful design for the Roll of Honour has been prepared by Mr P. H. Lockwood, the well-known Chester architect and approved by the Town Council. The Roll will be erected in the main corridor of the Town Hall and will form a fitting and enduring memorial of the heroic dead.

RANK AND FILE

..... Pope, Pte. Wallington Ernest, 17th King's Liverpool Reg.

 

We currently have no further information on Wallington Ernest Pope, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.