KEMPSON Ernest Charles

Additional information on the memorial: Royal Army Medical Corps. Killed in action 18 November 1916. Age 23.

Ernest Kempson was born on 12th October 1893, the son of Henry Edward and Elizabeth Kempson of Stourbridge. He entered Old Swinford Hospital on 16th December 1902 and he left the school in November 1907 to go to E. Webb & Sons, Seedsman, of Wordsley, as a clerk.

A report on the death of Ernest Kempson in the County Express stated that prior to enlisting he was a teacher at St Michael’s Sunday School, Brierley Hill and that he was killed in a dug-out demolished by a German shell. On 2nd December 1916 the newspaper printed details from a letter sent by Private S.W. Kirby, R.A.M.C. to Mr and Mrs Kirby of Brierley Hill. According to Private Kirby a party of men had been told to get some rest after twelve hours of duty so they immediately got to sleep in a dug-out. Private Kirby was alongside Ernest Kempson when the shell struck and he himself was buried, eventually being rescued after several hours and taken to hospital where he was treated for a fracture of his right thigh. Ernest was reported as killed instantaneously.

Source for additional information: Old Foleyans Remembered Casualties of WW1 published by the Old Foleyans Association, October 1998.