Ernest Joseph Baldry

Believed to have been Corporal - Essex Regiment

Ernest Joseph Baldry was born on the 25th of September 1889 in Beccles, Suffolk, the son of Joseph Baldry and his wife Caroline (Maclean). He was the third of six children, William (1884), Charles (1887), John (1892), Ethel (1895) and Florence (1898). Joseph and Caroline married in early 1883, probably at Beccles, Suffolk. Their first son, William, was born in Norwich, their remaining sons in Beccles and their two daughters in Redenhall, Norfolk. Joseph and Caroline lived the rest of their lives in Redenhall until they died in 1939 and 1943 respectively.

Ernest was educated in Redenhall and, after leaving school, went to work for a baker, eventually becoming assistant to William Chapman, baker and confectioner, at what is now known as The Old Bakery, Swardeston, Norfolk at the south end of high common by the Dog Walk footpath. It is almost certain he was still there at the outbreak of WW1, hence his inclusion in the Roll of Honour in Swardeston.

We have no record of Ernest being married but we can be fairly certain that he died in 1962, at the age of 72, in East Ham, Essex.

According to the Roll of Honour in the church Ernest was a corporal in the Essex Regiment. Unfortunately the Imperial War Museum database of all the men that served in uniform in WW1 there is nobody of that name and/or rank in the Essex Regiment. Indeed searches of the Norfolk and Suffolk Regiments have also drawn a blank so no information as to Ernest's military service can be given.

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