Ernest Beard
It is somewhat difficult to commence our Book of Remembrance with the details of a Widecombe man about whom we have been unable to trace any Armed Service record.
Ernest is listed on the 1918 Electoral register with an (a) denoting a man returning from the armed services but not yet home. By spring 1919 Ernest is listed as being resident in Poundsgate in Widecombe parish.
Various leads have been followed including the possibility that he served as a coastguard because the name Ernest Beard appeared on a medal listing for that service. Unfortunately, the only Ernest Beard who served with the coastguard service was not in anyway related to Widecombe or any part of the local Beard family.
Ernest’s parents were William Thomas Hamlyn Beard and Gertrude Ann Leaman and he was born when the family lived at Cator Cottage, Widecombe.
Ernest had an elder step-brother Mark Edwin Leaman, 3 sisters (Annie Gertrude, Louisa, and Elizabeth) and 2 brothers (John and William Thomas Hamlyn).
In 1905 Ernest married Lucy Cornish and two years later in 1907 his son John was born.
After the end of the war Ernest was employed in the grocery trade, and continued to live at Poundsgate until he died in 1948.
Previous: Introduction Next: William Richard Beard