Ernest's Story.
Lance Sergeant Ernest Dodd, of Wood Cottage, Wybunbury, died in Flanders, aged 19.
Ernest Dodd was born in the late autumn of 1897, the third child of Ralph Dodd (1872 - 1933) and Emily Smith (1874 - 1940). He was brother to Edith, Elizabeth, Martha Pretoria, Alice, Gertrude and James.
Baptised in St Chad's Church on 8th July 1900 on the same day as his younger sister Martha Pretoria, he grew up in Wybunbury, near Nantwich, and by 1911 was working as a farm labourer, aged 13. The family home was Wood Cottage, Wrinehill Road, Wybunbury.
Ernest's family home, Wood Cottage, pictured in 2025
Ernest enlisted into the 11th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment whilst at Bournemouth in Hampshire, and was sent to France on 26th September 1915. Starting as a private, he was promoted to corporal and then acting sergeant. Ernest was killed in action at Messines Ridge, in Flanders, Belgium on the first day of fighting there, on 7th June 1917. He was 19 years old.
The Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917) was an attack by the British Second Army on the Western Front, near the village of Messines in West Flanders, Belgium, resulting in a British victory. The attack forced the Germans to move reserves to Flanders from the Arras and Aisne fronts, relieving pressure on the French. The battle began with the detonation of nineteen powerful mines under German trenches, which was followed by a well-coordinated British assault led by General Sir Herbert Plumer. This battle was significant as it served as a prelude to the larger Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, which began later that year.
British wounded on trolleys, pushed by hand on a light railway near Messines, 7 June 1917. (Ernest not shown)
As he was unmarried, his mother Emily was his next of kin.
.Army Record of Deceased Soldiers' Effects
Ernest is remembered on the Menin Gate at Ypres.
NB See also another Private Ernest Dodd, Service Number 9480 of the Cheshire Regiment
Researched by Shena Lewington (October 2025)