Died
10 May 1941
Born
5 July 1874
Sources
Ancestry
CWGC
Wikipedia
Place
Walks
Themes
Ernest Edward Shipton
Blitz Victim
Some unremarkable people have interesting and often unrecorded, certainly uncelebrated, back-story’s. Ernest Shipton is one of them.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
KETURAH
BELOVED WIFE OF ERNEST EDWARD SHIPTON
DIED 25TH SEP. 1934 AGED 53 YEARS
ALSO THE ABOVE
ERNEST EDWARD SHIPTON
DIED 10 MAY 1941 AGED 67 YEARS
“AT REST”
The National Probate Calendar
Ernest Shipton was a fire warden of 33 Newland Street, which is where he died. The National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1941 has his Effects of £380 7s 8d being left to Joseph Albert While, labourer, and Margaret While, Joseph’s wife.
1939 Register
He is registered at that address, along with three other households, in the 1939 Register. His date of birth is given as 5 July 1874, and he is a Retired Caretaker.
1911 Census
In the 1911 Census, Ernest and his wife are living at 130 Hindpool Road, Barrow. Ernest Edward Shipton is 36 yrs old, a Carpenter’s Labourer in the Shipyard, born in Charlton Kings, nr Cheltenham, Gloucs.; Keturah Shipton is 39 yrs old, born Barrow-in-Furness, Lancs. They have been married 7 years, and have had no children.
WW1 War Pension Records
Ernest’s WW1 War Pension Records contain a One Year Attestation Paper for the Territorial Reserve, 4th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment (Service number 2384), signed in Barrow on 31st October 1914. He had previously served 11 years in the Army Reserve in Gloucestershire; 4 years in Lancaster, and 4 years in Barrow. He served in France from May to November 1915, when he came home, and was discharged on 19 May 1916 as permanently unfit. His marriage to Keturah While took place at St. Marks, Barrow, on 28 December 1903. They were living at 130 Hindpool Road, Barrow.
Ernest is 5ft. 9½ins tall (Tall for 1914 – though another document says he is 5ft 6ins), weighs 147lbs (10½ stones) and has tattoos: a ship on this right forearm, and Lord Roberts on his left forearm.
Army Career
His records show an Army Career in the 1st Batt., Gloucestershire Regt, rather than one just spent in the Reserve:
- Home March 1893 to October 1893
- Malta November 1893 to November 1895
- Egypt November 1895 to February 1897
- India February 1897 to September 1899
- South Africa September 1899 to August 1900 (Wounded in Action at Rietfontein, South Africa, 24/10/99. Took part in the Relief of Ladysmith – for which he got a clasp for his South Africa Medal).
- Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) August 1900 to December 1902.
- Home December 1902 to March 1905.
At some point he must have been transferred from Active Service to the Reserve, because he appears on the Great Western Railway Records (same date of birth) as a Porter at Aberbeeg Station (Monmouthshire) from May 1903 to his resignation in November 1903.
At the time of his discharge from the KORL in 1916 his occupation is listed as Rigger (Battleships). He had scars on his right shoulder and right abdomen from an operation; and scars from a bullet wound in his right shoulder from South Africa.
He is discharged due to neurasthenia. This was a common diagnosis for shell shock.
Censuses
Ernest does not appear, or at least I haven’t found him, on the 1891 or 1901 Censuses, probably due to being overseas with the Army, but he does appear (aged 6) on the 1881 Census, staying with his grandparents James and Elizabeth Hawkins (both aged 60; James a Coal Miner), two uncles, his brother Fred (aged 2) and his great-grandmother Amy Teague (aged 83), at Top Lonk, West Dean, (between Berry Hill and Joyford), part of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. His birth place is given as Cheltenham.
Ernest Edward Shipton was baptised 26 July 1874 in Charlton Kings, Gloucs, son of Joseph Shipton, a gardener, and his wife Annie.
The name Keturah: Keturah was a concubine and wife of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah. Abraham and Keturah had six sons.
One modern commentator on the Hebrew Bible has called Keturah "the most ignored significant person in the Torah". (From Wikipedia)
