An Old Contemptible who recovered from multiple wounds and was lost at sea returning to his battalion in Mesopotamia. His troop ship was sunk by a German U-Boat.
Ernest Woodhouse was born at Preston on 20 January 1890. He was the son of Army Pensioner, John Thomas, and Hannah Woodhouse of 14 Waverley Street, Preston. John Woodhouse had been a soldier in Married quarters at Shorncliff Camp at the time of the 1881 Census. His regiment has not been identified.
Baptised at St Matthew’s, Preston, as Ernest Raglan Woodhouse, on 20 April 1890, the family had moved to 1 Shaftesbury Street, Chorlton on Medlock by the time of the 1891 census. Ernest had two brothers, Christopher James and Marcus Loftus (officer in 22nd Bn), together with an elder sister, Annie Ellen. Ernest’s mother passed away and his father remarried Grace Bailey in 1899. In 1901 the family live at 3 Mellor Road, Longsight.
Ernest gained employment as a junior clerk for the Midland Railway Company at Belle Vue on 5 April 1904, aged 14. He resigned his position in January 1907. The employment record makes the note ‘enlisted’, indicating this was the date Ernest followed he father into the Army, albeit at the age of the 17, this may have been a Militia battalion. The Regimental number sequence indicates Ernest enlisted in the Regulars during the autumn of 1908.
In April 1911 Ernest was serving in India as a Private in 1st Bn. He embarked with the battalion on 27 August 1914 and will have disembarked at Marseille on 26 September 1914. Ernest’s Service Record has not been identified yet a number of records illustrate events during his service during the Great War.
Ernest was admitted to 14th Field Ambulance with sore feet on 3 January 1915 and transferred to Bailleul the same day. This record states he had been serving with 2nd Bn, indicating Ernest may have been sick / wounded and transferred from 1st Bn, presumably after October 1914. He had completed 6 years’ service, suggesting Ernest has enlisted in 1908 / 1909.
The next record for Ernest relates to a list of patients at the Moorfield Auxiliary Home Hospital at Glossop, Derbyshire from 1 June to 28 September 1915. He is noted as 1st Bn, indicating Ernest had been wounded (or sick) with his original battalion. As Moorfield was a Convalescent Hospital affiliated to 2nd Western Hospital, Manchester, it is likely Ernest had been evacuated from the Western Front in preceding weeks, most likely after being wounded in the 2nd Battle of Ypres in late April 1915.
Evidently returning to duty, Ernest’s details are found on an undated list in an unrelated Service Record (10565 Mycroft, Leicesters). This schedule covers nine men of 3rd Bn and one individual from the Sussex Regiment and Army Ordnance Corps respectively. Soldiers Effects also has a crossed out note of 3rd Bn. It is therefore evident with the subsequent casualty records that the schedule relates to men forming a draft for service in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and must date from spring 1917.
It can be assumed that Ernest had returned to the front after treatment at Glossop in 1915. 1st Bn had disembarked in Mesopotamia in January and many of their casualties were evacuated to India, rather than home. It is therefore possible that Ernest had been serving with another battalion, perhaps 2nd Bn, prior to evacuation and posting to 3rd Bn.
In 1917 3rd Bn was a reserve battalion, serving as a training unit and garrison for the Humber estuary in Cleethorpes. Numerous men were posted there, to regain full fitness after being wounded at the front. The 3rd Bn draft that sailed for Mesopotamia comprised a mixture of men from different battalions, illustrating the varied composition of 3rd Bn and the wide-ranging experience of soldiers sent to replace casualties in Mesopotamia. The original choice that men made at enlistment had clearly been superseded by the expediency of the regiment’s requirements for reinforcements:
Ainscough, William Celestin 43726 L/Cpl – Enlisted 5th Bn ‘1927’ 16/07/1914. France KLR, attached 18th Manchesters July 1916. Transfer to 18th Bn ‘43726’. Evacuated sprained ankle, 17/10/1916. Furlough to Nov 1916. Assumed posted to 3rd Bn, then 1st Bn.
Bennett, Alfred 19990 Pte – Enlisted 21st Bn late 1914. France 10/11/1915. Posted 3rd Bn, then 1st Bn.
Carey, Thomas 37155 Cpl – Trained 3rd Bn. Embarked as 1st Bn.
Newstead, James Henry 33671 Pte – France with 16th Bn after 1915. Posted to 3rd Bn, then 1st Bn.
Singleton, John 9204 Pte – Employed by Tootal Broadhurst, Lee & Co. Enlisted 17th Bn Jan 1915. Trained XVII Pln. France 08/11/1915. GSW L Foot, Flers 12/10/1916. Transfer to 2nd Gen Hosp. Evacuated home on HS ‘Gloucester Castle’. Transfer to 3rd Bn and 1st Bn.
Smallshaw, William 13197 Cpl – Collier, enlisted 11th Bn 19/10/1914. Gallipoli 14/07/1915. Evacuated home from Egypt sick 23/05/1916. Depot 04/06/1916. 3rd Bn 02/09/1916. Posted as draft to 1st Bn 02/04/1917.
Strachan, John Mitchell 37996 Pte – Trained 3rd Bn. Embarked as 1st Bn.
Wrigley, Fred 18170 Cpl – Number allocated to 20th Bn, Jan 1915. Trained 3rd Bn. Embarked as 1st Bn.
The draft of 2,650 men from various corps and regiments sailed on board the ocean liner SS Cameronia, which had been requisitioned as a troop ship in January 1917. The ship was bound for Alexandria when it was torpedoed by U-33, 150 nautical miles from Malta.
Eleven Mercantile Marine Crew and 127 officers and men from United Kingdom forces are recorded as CWGC casualties, who must have drowned when the Cameronia sank within 40 minutes. The remaining crew were picked up by the escorting destroyer, HMS Rifleman and a local sloop.
CWGC commemorates the crew on the crew on the Tower Hill Memorial in London. The army casualties are inscribed on the Chatby Memorial in Alexandria. The names include Ernest Woodhouse and the other eight Manchester Regiment NCOs and men posted from 3rd Bn.
Ernest’s father received a War Gratuity of £15 10 Shillings and a pension award from 1919. John Woodhouse was then resident at 52 Church Street, Didsbury.
Featured image © IWM Q 115414
17th Battalion Manchester Regiment on the Somme 