PRIVATE G/28126 ERNEST EDWARD HARRINGTON, 12TH BATTALION MIDDLESEX REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 26TH SEPTEMBER 1916.


PRIVATE G/28126 ERNEST EDWARD HARRINGTON, 12TH BATTALION MIDDLESEX REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 26TH SEPTEMBER 1916.

Private Ernest Edward Harrington was only 19 years old when he was killed in an attack at Thiepval on the Somme on the 26th September 1916. It is probably fair to say that during his brief life, Ernest had known little but hardship and neglect.


Born in Wortley near Barnsley, Ernest was one of 13 children born to miner Thomas Harrington and his wife Lucy. After the death of his father, Ernest became wayward and difficult to control. A persistent truant, his mother appears to have been largely indifferent to Ernest's welfare. In 1907 and aged only 10, the authorities caught up with Ernest and his mother when they both appeared before the Sheffield Magistrates. Their worships noted Lucy's poor attitude towards her son and promptly ordered Ernest to be detained for 6 years. Standing at only 3'9" in height and weighing 3 stone he was sent to Ardsley Industrial School in Manchester.

After his release from detention Ernest seems to have moved to Dunstable in Bedfordshire where he enlisted in the 12th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. His connection with Ilkley is unknown and there is no information about him in the Ilkley Gazette. 
Private Ernest Harrington has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing and on Chapeltown War Memorial, Sheffield and Ilkley War Memorial


Possibly Maggie Scott b 1896 Sewell Dunstable.



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