Search our records : Ernest William Bartlett

Ernest Bartlett was born in Beer in 1898, the son of Captain Bartlett and his wife Grace.  The family moved to Cardiff, presumably because of Capt. Bartlett’s work, just like Allan Newton’s family (see separate panel).

Ernest volunteered for the army at the outbreak of war, even though he was only sixteen, and joined the 11^th Battalion the Welch Regiment, known as the ‘Cardiff Pals’.  He was posted to France in August 1915, before being posted to Salonica, and sailed from Marseille on 30^th October 1915.

On 9^th January 1917 an article in Pulman’s Weekly News announced that Ernest had been awarded the Military Medal:

‘Residents of Beer will be gratified to learn that Private Ernest Bartlett, now of Cardiff, but formerly of Beer, has been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry in repairing wires and keeping up communications under intense shellfire in Salonica.  Bartlett enlisted at the outbreak of hostilities in the 11^th Welsh Regiment (Cardiff Pals Battalion) when only 16 years of age, and after twelve months training in England, went to France in August 1915, and was for a time in the trenches at Verdun.  For some months he has been with the Allied forces in Salonica as a signaller.’

Ernest died in 1976, aged 78.