This is one of a series of posts about local men named on the Keighley Union Workhouse roll of honour.
Ernest Gill Terry was recorded living at Keighley Union Workhouse in the 1911 census.
Private. Army Infantry. Royal Army Ordnance Depot
Early life:
Ernest Terry was born illegitimately on November 20, 1890. His parents Joseph Terry and Mary Ann Gill married one month later on December 20. He was baptised at St Peter’s Church, Keighley on January 14, 1891. His father was a 29 year old labourer living at Starkie Street and his mother was 33 years old and living at Westgate, Keighley.
In the 1891 census Ernest was five months old and he was living with his parents at 130, Oakworth Road.
By 1901 they had moved to 63, Burlington Street and his father was still labouring for a living and his mother had a job as a house keeper. Ernest was aged 10 and at school.
Financially, Joseph and Mary Ann must have been in difficulty because by 1911 they were all living at the Keighley Union Workhouse and it also records that they’d had two other children who had since died and Ernest was the only surviving child but by now was 20 and a general labourer like his father, who was listed as a patient in the workhouse.
Ernests’ father Joseph died in the second quarter of 1914 aged 52
War service:
With regard to Ernest Terry’s service in the Great War, we have not been able to identify any specific war service records for him as there are too many men of that name who served and we cannot identify which records apply to him.
In the 1921 census Ernest was still serving in the Army and was living at Hutments Barracks, an Army camp in Fleetwood. This camp was a Royal Army Ordnance Depot which held a large ‘small arms ammunition’ repository prior to and during the Great war and he may have been one of the men assigned to guarding it.
The census record does not give regimental information nor his Army number but it does say he was Ernest Gill Terry, aged 31 years and 8 months (confirming he was born in 1890.) He was single, born in Keighley and he was a Private in the Army Infantry.
Remembrance:
Ernest Terry [Gill] is named on the Keighley Union Workhouse memorial.
Post war:
Ernest’s mother Mary Ann died in March 1922 aged 64.
Ernest was a 32 bachelor when he married Mary Jane Dawson in Keighley on December 9, of the same year. Ernest was a 32 year old bachelor and a joiner living at 37, Beck Street and Mary Jane was a 36 year old spinster living at the same address.
In the 1939 register they were living at 12, Woodhouse Drive in Keighley. Ernest was a News vendor and Mary was a retired worsted fly spinner.
Ernest died in in 1937 aged 47 and Mary died in June 1964 aged 79.
Information sources:
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1891 England Census.
1901 England Census.
1911 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915.
1921 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962.
1939 England and Wales Register.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
