DUCKETT

Ernest Henry

Private G/25895, 10th Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment). Killed in action 29th September 1918. Aged 19. Born Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, enlisted and resident Kettering. Son of John W. and Mary Violet Duckett, of 47, Bayes St., Kettering. No known grave. Commemorated on TYNE COT MEMORIAL, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 14 to 17 and 162 to 162A.

Ernest Duckett played the side drum in the Kettering Salvation band. He was born in Stapleford but he and his parents moved to Kettering, living at 47 Bayes Street. He worked just up the street at the Kettering Co-op Clothing Factory. In May 1917 he joined the West Surrey Regiment and went to France in May 1918. He was killed, by a shell, during an advance on the night of 29th-30th September 1918 two months before the end of the war. He has no known grave and his name in on the Tyne Cot memorial on Passchendaele Ridge He was also 19

The following report is taken from the local paper "The Kettering Leader".

A GOOD SOLDIER
YOUNG KETTERING SALVATIONIST’S
SACRIFICE
THE LATE PTE. E. H. DUCKETT

The regrettable news has been received that Pte. Ernest Henry Duckett, only son of Mr. and Mrs. Duckett, 47, Bayes Street, Kettering, has been killed in action in France. The young man, who was only 19 years of age, enlisted in May 1917, in the West Surrey Regt. and went to France in March of the present year. He was previously employed at the Kettering Cooperative Clothing Factory in Field Street, and was prominently associated with the Salvation Army, and used to play side drum in the band. His many friends in Kettering will learn of his loss with great regret. The lieutenant of his company, Lieut. F. E.B. Girling, writes that “the young man was killed during the advance on the night of Sept. 29th—30th, 1918. He was killed instantaneously by a shell, and did not suffer at all. He was a good soldier, and died whilst doing his duty with a cheerful heart. They were indeed sorry to lose him. His body was taken to the rear and properly buried.”