The early life of Ernest Brister is a challenge to piece together. His baptism record – at St Mary Magdalene Church in Thornford, Dorset – suggests that he was born in the summer of 1891, but gives only the name of his mother, Rosina Brister.

The 1901 census identifies the 9-year-old Ernest as a visitor to the house of Eliza Brister, a 65-year-old widow working as a laundress. There are several other Bristers in the village – including Eliza’s own to children – but Rosina is nowhere to be seen.

The next census, taken in 1911, sheds a little more light on the situation. Ernest is still living with Eliza, but he is now recorded as being her grandson. Aged 75, she was still taking in laundry, but Ernest was employed as a mason.

In the autumn of 1913, Ernest married Beatrice Chalker. She was a shepherd’s daughter from Dewlish in Dorset. The couple wed in Dorchester and went on to have two children, Doris and Edwin.

When war broke out, Ernest stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment, and found himself in France by the summer of 1915.

There is little information about Ernest’s time in the army, but later in the war, he seems to have transferred over to the Wiltshire Regiment. Attached to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, his new unit served on home soil and, based in Kent, was part of the Thames & Medway Garrison.

Private Brister was based in Maidstone in the autumn of 1918, when he contracted influenza and pneumonia. He was admitted to the military hospital in Aylesford, but the conditions were to prove to severe. He passed away on 24th November 1918, aged 27 years old.

Ernest Brister’s body was taken back to Dorset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary Magdalene Church. His grandmother, Eliza, passed away just a month later, at the age of 82. She was laid to rest close to her beloved grandson.

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The 1910s were harsh for Ernest’s widow, Beatrice. Her youngest son was born in March 1915, her mother dying a couple of months later. She lost her brother, Edwin, to the war – he was serving with the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, when he was killed on 28th August 1916. He was just 19 years of age. Two years later, she was widowed when Ernest passed away.

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