Ernest West was born in the autumn of 1894 in Barnstaple, Devon. The middle of seven children, his parents were Charles and Eliza. The 1901 censes recorded Charles as being the innkeepers of a pub on North Street in Braunton, but ten years later he had changed career, and was a corn and manure merchant. The family had moved to Scur Farm to the north of the town centre.

War broke out in the summer of 1914, and Ernest stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal North Devon Yeomanry, and was attached to the 1st Battalion. Full service details have been lost to time, but by the autumn of 1915, Private West was in the Balkans, and was among those to land at Sulva Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Ernest survived the fighting, but contracted dysentery. He was medically evacuated back to Britain, and admitted to the 3rd North General Hospital in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Sadly, the condition was to get the better of him, and he passed away on the 13th February 1916, at the age of just 21 years old.

The body of Ernest West was taken back to Devon for burial, and he was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Brannock’s Church, Braunton.

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Ernest was not the only West sibling to die during the First World War. His older brother William enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment and, in the autumn of 1917, found himself in the fighting at Passchendaele. He was killed in action on 4th October, at the age of 27. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

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