Rifleman Ernest Stanley Gard
1st/5th Battalion, London Regiment
(London Rifle Brigade)
19/10/1916
Born at Guernsey. Son of the Rev. John and Elizabeth
Gard, of Home Farm, Sipson, Middlesex. Enlisted at London.
He was a trainee news reporter at the Guernsey Star
and Press, and had moved to St Alban's to work before
enlisting.
Died of wounds, aged 19 years
France, October 20th, 1916.
To the Reverend J Gard,¹
Dear Sir:—It is with great sorrow
that I have to write and tell you that your son has
passed away in No. 22 General Hospital.
He came to this Hospital base with a very
severe gunshot wound in the chest. Empyema set in as
a result and he had to be operated on yesterday afternoon,
but he never rallied afterwards and died during the
night. I called to see him several times but he was
never able to speak to me, though I think that during
the last visit he understood me. Your telegram came
whilst he was under the operation, and you will be glad
to know that just before the end he recovered consciousness,
and your message brought him a great joy and happiness.
He understood it perfectly and passed away with it in
his hands. He said something at the last which the Sister
gathered was about his mother, but she could not grasp
what it was.
He often talked of you both in his last
conscious moments, and his great trouble was the anxiety
and care that his wound might cause his mother, and
he was for ever hoping that she would not worry. His
own care was for her.
He was laid to rest today in the Military
Cemetery, and the Chaplain who presided was the Reverend
A R Maxwell, a Congregationalist minister. The cemetery
is a well kept one and situated between the sea and
a little pine wood. He is far away from the strife and
there is no fear of his grave ever being disturbed.
A photograph of the grave may be obtained from the YMCA,
should you desire it.
The United Board Chaplain has left here
for the front and no-one has as yet taken his place.
In his absence I took upon myself the privilege of visiting
your son, and my grief is that I never found him conscious.
I talked with the sister who saw him most and I can
only tell you of his last moments form her report.
He was a great favourite in his ward,
and the patience and bravery he displayed were very
marked. He had very little pain, though he must have
found it very trying to lie as still as he had to. If
he had lived he would have had months of very great
pain and would never have been really strong again.
I have seen very many of the bravest of
our sons pass away, who have given their lives for all
they hold dear, and your son is numbered among the countless
heroes of our Empire, and I am also glad to say among
the heroes of God's Church. I pray that our Great Leader
who trod the same path of scrifice will help and sustain
you in your hour of need. All words at such a time seem
besuide the point and de trop, and yet I do earnestly
and feelingly tender to you my deepest sympathy and
would assure you of my prayers. God bless you and his
mother, both of whom were so dear to your loved one.
It is not many years since I had to face such a loss,
and I trust God's help may be as real to you now as
it was to me then.
Believe me Sir,
Yours very sincerely, Arthur S Elliott
(Wesleyan Chaplain).
¹ Baptist. Ernest was born in 1896 when his parents
were living in Belmont Road.
