ERNEST RICHARD CHASON

Born: 1880, St. Clement’s, Ipswich.

Died: 10th May 1915; age 34; Died of Wounds – No. 4 General Hospital, Versailles, France.

Residence: 3, Maples Yard, Tanners Lane, Ipswich.

Occupation: Labourer.

First Enlistment Details: Location: Ipswich; Date: 24th August 1898; Age: 18 years & 6 months; Religion: CofE. Next of Kin: father – Mr Samuel Chason, Sporles Court, Bell Lane, Stoke, Ipswich. Height: 5ft 3 1/2 ins, fresh complexion, blue eyes & dark brown hair.

Service in the York & Lancaster Regiment, service number 5222:

Home – 24th August 1898 – 27th February 1900 – Africa – 28th February 1900 – 23rd October 1902 – India – 24th October 1902 – 27th October 1905 – Home 28th October 1905 – 8th March 1907 – India – 9th March 1907 – 26th October 1910 – Home 27th October 1910 – 28th October 1910.

Medals Awarded: Mounted Infantry Certificate 3rd September 1903, Queen’s South Africa with Clasps & King’s South Africa with Clasps.

Discharge on termination – served 12 years & 66 days.

Date of Entry Therein: 30th August 1914.

Rank: Private; Service Number: 3/8256

Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 1st Battalion.

Medals Awarded: Victory, British War & 1914 Star.

Grave Reference:

3.17.

Les Gonards Cemetery,

Versailles,

Yvelines,

France.

CENSUS

1881   3, Watts Court, Foundation Street, Ipswich.

Ernest was 10 months old and living with his parents & sister.

Samuel Chason, 49, a Fitter’s Labourer, born Ipswich.

Emma Ann Chason (nee Woor), 36, born Ipswich.

Priscilla Woor Chason, 18, a Domestic Servant, born Ipswich.

1891   7, Beck Street, Ipswich.

Ernest was 10 years old and living with his parents & maternal grandparents.

Samuel, 59, a Labourer – Foundry.

Emma, 46.

William Woor, 69, a Shoe Maker, born Boston, Lincolnshire.

Maria Woor, 69, born Ipswich.

1911   33, Albion Street, Ipswich.

Ernest was 30 years old, a Dock Labourer. He was married and Head of the Household. His widowed mother was staying.

Laura, 26.

Ernest, 4.

Emma, 66.

Ernest’s father, Samuel Chason, died in 1903, Ipswich. His mother, Emma Ann Chason, died in 1912, Ipswich.

In 1906, in Ipswich, Ernest married Annie Laura Burton, born July 1884, Ipswich.

Annie and Ernest had four children:

Ernest Richard Chason Burton, born July 1906, Ipswich.

Priscilla May Chason, born 1911, Ipswich – died on the 28^th April 1912, Ipswich and buried at Section C, Ipswich Old Cemetery.

William George Chason, born February 1913, Ipswich.

Bessie Evelyn Chason, born September 1914, at 3, Maples Yard, Tanners Lane, Ipswich, baptised on the 20^th January 1915, at Tanners Lane Mission Room – died on the 21^st July 1916, Ipswich and buried on the 26^th July at Section FF, Ipswich Old Cemetery.

Soldiers’ Effects to Annie Laura Mortimer – widow, of 42, Black Horse Lane, Ipswich.

Ernest is also remembered on the war memorial at  St. Mary le Elms Church, Ipswich.

Suffolk Regiment, 1st Battalion. 84th Brigade

The Second Battle of Ypres was underway, and the 1st Battalion was to suffer over a thousand casualties in six weeks with fierce fighting along the Salient. The Battle of Frezenberg Ridge and Bellewaarde Ridge were to take its toll on the 1st Battalion. At 10:00 a.m. on the 8th May, the attack began with heavy shelling from both sides of all calibre, then came a cloud of yellow-green poison gas that drifted through the British lines. Blinded and choking men continued to fight on, still under a hail of bullets and shell fire. The shelling had cut most of the communication wires, with little information passing through. The exposed roads gave little shelter for the limited supply line. The German attack had overwhelmed the British. By noon, the Battalion had 400 casualties, with 12 Ipswich men dead and more to be killed or die of wounds in the following weeks.

Suffolk Regiment, 1st Battalion:

Suffolk Regiment Battalion movements

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