The following appeared in the ‘Derbyshire Courier’ of 14 June 1919:-
“Mrs T. E. Whitworth of Dronfield has now received official intimation that her husband, Pte. Thomas Ernest Whitworth of the Sherwood Foresters, previously reported missing in March 1918, is now presumed to have been killed. He enlisted in September 1914 and went to France in August 1915.”
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website confirms that 14683 Private Thomas Ernest Whitworth of the 16th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was the: “son of the late Thomas and Mary Whitworth, of 51, Sheffield Rd., Dronfield, Derby; husband of Florence Grayer (formerly Whitworth), of 45, Viaduct Rd., Brighton.”
The 1901 census found the 9-year-old Thomas Ernest with his parents and siblings at 11 Hill Top Road, Dronfield, and shows his father employed as a Colliery Engine Driver Above Ground.
Ten years later, now aged 20, Thomas Ernest was located in the home at 78 Albert Street, Mansfield Woodhouse, near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, of his paternal aunt, Emma King nee Whitworth (born Mansfield Woodhouse 1857) and Emma’s husband Daniel King (born Codnor, Nottinghamshire 1861). At that time Daniel King was a Coal Miner – Hewer, and Thomas Ernest Whitworth a Coal Miner – Gobber. [As a guard against subsidence, using available rocks and other material, a Gobber packed the void left after the coal had been extracted from the coalface]
Thomas Ernest Whitworth’s service records have not survived.
The publication ‘Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919’ shows that, when he enlisted in Cresswell, Derbyshire near Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Thomas Ernest confirmed that he was born in Dronfield, and that he was resident in Brighton, Sussex. His medal card confirms that he served firstly with the Sherwood Foresters’ 12th Battalion, and then the 17th, before he was with the 16th. His medal card also shows that Thomas Ernest was awarded the 1914-15 Star, thus confirming that he first entered a war zone before 31 December 1915.
A ‘British Armed Forces, First World War Widows' Pension Application Form’ completed by Thomas Ernest’s wife, conveys that on 24 January 1917, Thomas Ernest married Florence Ruth nee Dean (born Hove, Sussex 31 March 1892). When she completed the form, Florence Ruth Whitworth was living at 51 Sheffield Road, Dronfield. That address is then crossed out in favour of an update to 58 Montgomery Street, Hove, Sussex. The marriage was recorded in the Worksop (Nottinghamshire) Registration District. The couple do not appear to have had children.
The CWGC website confirms that Thomas Ernest Whitworth died, aged 27, on 21 March 1918, and that his name is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial for the missing presumed dead: “Pozieres [being] a village 6 kilometres north-east of the town of Albert, Somme Region, France”.
It may be relevant that the date of Thomas Ernest being reported as missing was the first day of the German spring offensive (21 March to 18 July 1918), during which, to quote from the CWGC once more: “…..the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields.”
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