Ernest Harold Kimberley
His record says he was:
5ft 3ins
147lbs
Fair complexion Fair hair
Blue eyes
Healthy: ‘only illness measles’
In loving memory of Edmund, beloved husband of Isabella Kimberley Died August 2nd 1923 and of the above Isabella Kimberley Died December 29th 1925
Also of Ernest Harold, son of the above who was killed in action in France August 16th 1916 Interred at Armentieres
CWGC tells us that he was the son of Edmund and Isabella Kimberley, of 1, Holker St., Barrow-in-Furness. England, and belonged to the Wellington Regiment, N.Z.E.F. 1st Bn.
He is buried in Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres.
One of the first graves that alerted me to the fact that many families commemorated fathers and sons who are buried, or on memorials, overseas, and who are not recorded as being referenced in Barrow cemetery on the CWGC website.
Ernest was born on 24 July 1889, presumably emigrated to Inglewood, New Zealand, and enlisted there on 16 Feb 1915. His service record can be seen here.
From what can be read there, he was a self-employed piano tuner. He was part of the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force, 5th Reinforcements. Ernest joined his battalion Gallipoli on 15 August 1915. Six weeks later he was suffering from diarrhoea, later dysentery, and hospitalised. He is recorded as disembarking from Hospital Ship Somali at Malta in November 1915 ‘slightly sick’. Arriving on the H.S. Formosa, he spent some time in hospital at Walton-on-Thames in Feb 1916. After 33 days in hospital, making a ‘quiet and uneventful recovery’, he reported back to Depôt at Hornchurch in March 1916, and returned to his battalion in May 1916. The record does not identify the manner or circumstances of his death.
His service medals were sent to his mother in 1923 (receipt in the record).
His name is among those on the war memorial at Inglewood, North Island, New Zealand.
