William Hearn Moore – who became known as William Ernest Moore – was born in Churchstanton, Devon, in the summer of 1883. His mother, Mary, was only eighteen at the time but, when she married Henry Westcott in August 1891, he treated William as his own.

Henry found work as a coachman in Ilminster, Somerset, and, when he left school, William took on work as a gardener. In October 1903, he married carter’s daughter Charlotte Tucker: the couple set up home in the centre of the town, and went on to have three children – Gladys, Ethel and Henry.

William was working as a foreman for the Chard Lace Company when war broke out. While his full service records are lost to time, it is clear that he enlisted in the Royal Engineers, and was given the rank of Driver.

Driver Moore was in Aldershot, Hampshire, by the autumn of 1915, when he fell ill. He contracted cerebrospinal meningitis, a condition which took his life on 18th October 1915. He was just 32 years old.

William Ernest Moore was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Ilminster, where Charlotte and the family were still living.

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With three children to raise, Charlotte married again, to a William Dean, on 21st October 1916. They did not have children of their own and lived in Chard. Charlotte passed away in the winter of 1941, at the age of 57 years old.

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