Ernest Harold Quantrill

A Lance Corporal with the 2nd Battalion, Ernest died on 19th of June 1917 at the age of 21. 

Ernest was born at Lowestoft in 1895, a son of James and Agnes Elizabeth Quantrill. In 1901 his family lived at 6 Water Lane. This was still their home in 1911 when Ernest worked as a housepainter. Later his mother lived at 17 Water Lane. 

Ernest volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 1444, and served with the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion. He was posted to the 1/4th Battalion, in France, and then the 2nd Battalion, service number 43781. He is believed to have been in a draft of men that arrived in France on 26 July 1916. 

Ernest died of wounds on 19 June 1917. There are no specific records of how, or when, he was wounded, but the 2nd Battalion’s war diary records no casualties between 1 and 13 June and it is probable that Ernest was wounded during the 2nd Battalion’s attack on Hook Trench and Long Trench, near Arras, that began on 14 June. 

Between 14 and 19 June 1917 the 2nd Battalion’s casualties were:
Officers: six killed, five wounded
Other ranks: 56 killed, 183 wounded, 2 missing 

Ernest's brother John died in an air raid in 1941.