ERNEST OLIVER TOWNSEND
1889 – 1949
Ernest was born at Stouts Cottage, Widecombe in the Moor, in 1889, the son of John Townsend and Jane France George.
In 1910, Ernest’s father died, and the family moved into Widecombe village. Ernest took work as a labourer working partly for the local Blacksmith, Aaron Warren.
It was whilst working for Aaron that he met Susan Warren whom he married in 1916.
Ernest enlisted with the 1st/4th Battalion Devonshire Regiment in late 1916. He served in Mesopotamia in Amara and was involved with the defence of the River Tigrus. His Battalion ended the Great War in Baquaba, north of Baghdad. Ernest was demobbed in March 1919.
After the war Ernest returned to New Park Cottage Widecombe where he lived with his wife and widowed mother. By the 1930’s they had moved to Bittleford and by 1939 were living at Windwhistle Cottages.
Susan and Ernest only had one child Herbert Leslie. Regrettably Herbert was killed in 1939 when his motor cycle was in collision with a car at Cullompton.
Ernest Townsend died in Taunton in 1949 aged 60.
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