In the depths of Highgate Cemetery, Middlesex, is the weathered grave of Driver EA Lord, of the Royal Horse Artillery, who died on 8th May 1921. Little concrete information is available about him, and a lot of the young man’s life is destined to remain lost to time.

A few military documents shed some light on the man. His name was Ernest Arthur Lord, and he was 26 when he died in Manor House Hospital, Golders Green, Middlesex.

A pension for his widow was refused, because the couple married after he was discharged from the army. There is a marriage certificate for an Ernest Lord and Beatrice Moore on Christmas Day 1920. The couple wed in Charleston Parish Church, Salford, Lancashire: Ernest was noted as being a clerk, and Beatrice a tailoress. However, this is more of an interesting footnote: there is nothing to directly connect this Ernest Lord to the burial in Highgate.

Driver Lord’s entry on the Medal Roll Index confirms that his unit was sent to France on 26th December 1915. Where he served, and for how long, however, is unclear.

Much of Ernest Arthur Lord’s life is sadly untraceable: a life and a history lost to the Great War.

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