Davis, Ernest

No.1528 – Sapper Ernest Davis – 7^th Field Company Engineers

Ernest Davis was born in Swansea Wales in 1880 to John and Eliza Davis. He was schooled in Wales and late became a Dresser. In 1905 aged 25 he came to Western Australia where he took up work as a Railway Employee. According to the AWM Nominal Roll he was living in Fremantle though his service record states that his wife Maud lived in Greenmount. He enlisted into the AIF on the 1^st May 1915 and was passed as fit. The medical examiner found him to be 5 feet 5 inches in height; weight of 133 lbs; chest measurement of 34-36 inches; fair complexion; blue eyes and dark brown hair. His religious denomination was Church of England.

Ernest was assigned to the 1^st Reinforcements to the 28^th Battalion with the regimental no.1528 and he trained with this group in WA until they departed from Fremantle Harbour on the 5^th June 1915 aboard the H.M.A.T. “Geelong”. After arrival in Egypt he joined the 28^th Battalion and trained with them here until the end of August 1915. On the 4^th September the 28^th Battalion left Alexandria and sailed for Gallipoli. They saw out the last few months of the Gallipoli campaign and after the peninsula was evacuated the 28^th Battalion returned to Egypt.

The first few months of 1916 saw Ernest with the Battalion in Egypt, however on the 8^th March 1916 he transferred to the 7^th Field Company Engineers and less than a week later embarked with this unit from Alexandria bound for France. Arriving at Marseilles on the 19^th March 1916 the men were sent north to the region south of Armentieres where they held the line for the next few months.

On the 22^nd June 1916 Ernest was sent to the 6^th Field Ambulance and then the 2^nd Casualty Clearing Station ill. He was diagnosed with Venereal Disease and was sent to No.9 Stationary Hospital at Le Havre and then on the 18^th General Hospital at Camiers. On the 21^st August 1916 he was passed as fit and was sent to the 2^nd Australian Division Base Depot and rejoined the 7^th Field Company Engineers on the 26^th August 1916. Ernest had missed the Somme battles of Pozieres and Mouquet Farm and rejoined his unit just as they were heading north to Belgium. They stayed in the quieter sector of Ypres until October 1916 and were then sent back to the Somme region.

Ernest’s 7^th Brigade took part in an assault on the German trenches at Flers in early November 1916 and for the rest of the French winter of 1916/17 served in this muddy battlefield.

On the 8^th January 1917 the 7^th Field Company Engineers were stationed at Waterlot Farm in Ginchy when a dugout in their camp was destroyed by shellfire with 5 men being killed and 4 wounded. Ernest was one of those men killed and he was buried at Delville Wood Cemetery Plot XII.K.1