LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS - WWI

Private Ernest Henry Friday
2nd Bn. The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)

Town Memorial P3.R2.C2.

Taken, Not Given

Pte
Ernest H Friday
2nd Royal West Surrey Regt
Loos
Oct 28, 1915

Ernest Friday died of wounds, and the regimental records of the Queens also state that his second Christian name was Henry. (1)

According to these records, which confirmed that he was serving with the 2nd. Bn. of his Regiment, he was born in Leatherhead, and, like so many of the Queens he enlisted at Guildford.

According to his unit's War Diary, on the 28th of October at 1915, the “whole battalion was in gauged in digging trenches, having been relieved in the trenches on 17th October by the 1st Bn. KOYLI [Kings Own  Yorkshire Light Infantry].

However injuries occurred on two days previous to that event. On 3 October, three men were wounded, and on the 15th three more. The War Diary simply states “3 ORs wounded. One man to hospital. At night certain amount of bombing and shelling in the "Hohenzollern". The "Hohenzollern" was the infamous German redoubt which cost so many British lives at Loos.

Unfortunately it is not possible to identify with any degree of certainty when and Ernest Friday received his wounds. It may have been months earlier, but 3rd October is offered as a possibility.

Notes on sources
1. Regimental Records of The Queens, Regimental Museum, Clandon Park, Surrey.
2. File WO95–1664 War Diary of the 2nd Bn Queens, Public  Record Office, Kew, Richmond.

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Further research

Private
FRIDAY, ERNEST HENRY
Service Number 4507
Died 28/10/1915
Aged 25
2nd Bn. The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Son of George and Eliza Friday, of Leatherhead; husband of Maude Mary Friday, of Ivy Cottages, Middle Rd., Leatherhead, Surrey.
INSCRIPTION
EVER IN OUR THOUGHTS FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
Buried at ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY
Location: Pas de Calais, France
Cemetery/memorial reference: III. E. 17.

He enlisted at Guildford joining the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment with service number G/4507.

Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
Saturday 06 November 1915

LEATHERHEAD AND THE WAR - LEATHERHEAD FAMILIES AT THE FRONT
ANOTHER LEATHERHEAD MAN KILLED
PTE E. H. FRIDAY DIES WOUNDS.
The war has claimed another Leatherhead man, notification having been received last week that Pte E. H. Friday, third son of Mr. and Mrs. G, Friday, of Glebe Cottages, Fairfield-road, Leatherhead, had died of wounds in hospital in France on October 27th.

Pte Friday enlisted in the 2nd Batt. Royal West Surrey Regiment in February last, and went through his training at Chatham. He was sent out to France with draft June 10th, and was severely wounded in the head in the great advance at Loos on September 25th-26th. Pte Friday was taken to a general hospital in France, and after four weeks of great suffering he succumbed to meningitis on Wednesday of last week.

The deceased, who leaves a wife and three young children, was well known and highly respected locally. Latterly he had in the employ of Messrs. H. Moore and Son, millers, of Leatherhead, and he is the second employee of the firm to fall in the war, the death of Lce-Corpl. Clementson [sic] having been reported some time ago.

Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser Saturday 13 November 1915 PTE E. H. FRIDAY. Last week we reported the death of Pte E. H. Friday, son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Friday, Glebe Cottages, Fairfield-road. Leatherhead. The photograph reproduced [above] did not reach us till this week.

Pte E.H. FRIDAY

 
Surrey Mirror
Friday 31 December 1915

ROLL OF HONOUR.
BRAVE SURREY MEN FALLEN IN THE WAR.
LEATHERHEAD AND DISTRICT.
Pte. E. H. Friday, 2nd Batt. R.W.S. Regiment (died October 27th from wounds received in action in France). Third son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Friday. Glebe Cottages, Fairfield-road, Leatherhead.

Note that the press reports say he died on 27 October whereas the official records and the memorial say the 28th.

Leatherhead Parish Magazine, November 1915

The following have laid down their lives for their Country.
...
Oct 27 [sic] 1915 Ernest Friday,  2nd Queen's W. Surrey,  killed in action in Flanders [sic]

His life

Ernest Friday was born on 20 August 1890 and baptised on 19 October 1890 at St Mary & St Nicholas, the parish church of Leatherhead, Surrey.

His father was George Friday b September 1861, baptised 10 November 1861 Fetcham, Surrey. He was the son of Charles Friday (1831-1896) and Anne Stovell (1835-1886).

His mother was Jane Elizabeth Friday née Ramsbotham, born 5 February 1863 Tostock, Suffolk.

They married on 11 July 1883 at St Martins, the parish church of Epsom.

Ernest's siblings were William George b 1893, Walter Frederick b 1887, Albert Harold b 1893, Cecil St Clare b 1898, and Elsie Muriel b 1901.

The 1911 Census, in which Ernest is described as a General Labourer, shows his wife of one year as Maude Friday, born Calne, Wiltshire.  

Their son Leslie Ernest Henry Friday was born on 28 January 1911 and baptised at All Saints, Leatherhead, Surrey and their address was Middle Road, Fairfield, Leatherhead. Ernest 's occupation was Labourer.

Their daughters Maude Mary b 25 March 1913 and Gladys Elizabeth May b May 14 1914 were baptised at Leatherhead Parish Church on July 18 1915. The Fridays' address was Ivy Cottages, Middle Road, Leatherhead and Ernest was described as a Gardener (Soldier, Pte 2nd QW Surrey).

The 1911 Census, in which Ernest is described as a General Labourer, shows his wife of one year as Maude Friday. However, his Military Pension Record states Maude Mary as his unmarried wife. No marriage records have been found so far.
At the time of his death Maude was living at Ivy Cottages, Middle Road, Leatherhead, Surrey.

After the war

In 1925 Maude (or Maud), who had three young children, got married again, to Sidney J Penfold. Sidney was a brother of Leonard Penfold (with whom Ernest was up before the Epsom Petty Sessions in 1912 - see below), and Benjamin Penfold, both of whom, like Ernest Friday, did not return from WW1. Benjamin is also commemorated on the Epsom War Memorial.

In the 1939 England & Wales Register Maude Mary Penfold, b 26 August 1881, was still at 16 Middle Road but was again a widow - Sidney Penfold had died in 1934. Maude's death at the age of 81 was registered in Surrey Mid Eastern District in October 1962.

Ernest is remembered on these memorials
Leatherhead Town Memorial
Leatherhead RBL Roll of Honour, Leatherhead Parish Church
Ladies War Shrine, Leatherhead Parish Church
Church Lads Brigade Memorial Tryptich, All Saints Leatherhead
Surrey in the Great War

Ernest's cousin Percy - From Young Offender to Volunteer Hero

Ernest's cousin Percy (their fathers George and Charles were brothers) was a case of, as Lorraine Spindler put it in her book Leatherhead and the Great War, 'From Young Offender to Volunteer Hero' ...

Percy Friday was born on 2 April 1895 to Charles and Helen Friday who were both from long established Leatherhead families and living at 8 St John’s Terrace in 1911. The Census shows Charles and Helen had eight children, but by 1911 only four were still living. Percy, like his father, was a general labourer.

The Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser of 17 August 1912 reported Percy’s appearance at the Epsom Petty Sessions for criminal damage to the alder trees of Randalls Park and trespassing onto the property of Mr A.H. Henderson. Percy had thrown doubt on his innocence at the scene by claiming his name was Arthur Sayers of 5 Kings Lea, Leatherhead.

Percy and his friend, Leonard Godfrey Penfold, were discharged with a caution having stated they were going to the river to bathe and found a bonfire of alder trees already alight.

A month later, September 1912, Percy joined the 1st Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. When war broke out his medal roll shows he embarked for France with the British Expeditionary Force on 16 August 1914, almost two years to the day after the Randalls Park incident. His friend, Leonard, joined the 1st Battalion of the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment between February and July 1914, enlisting at Kingston.

Leonard went missing during the First Battle of the Ypres; his death is recorded as 29 October 1914 and his brother Benjamin died on 13 September 1915. Both are commemorated on the Leatherhead War Memorial. Their twin brothers, Sydney and Arthur, joined the Royal Field Artillery together and both survived the war.

The Friday family, like many others across the nation, submitted Percy’s letters home to the local newspaper; this seldom happened in the national press for security reasons. Percy may well have seen his own letter in the paper as local newspapers were available to the fighting troops. In effect Percy and his fellow soldiers would take part in a battle and then read about themselves a few days later. Soldiers also learnt of the deaths of their family and friends from the newspapers; Percy most likely discovered Leonard had gone missing from the newspapers.

People at home were usually very keen to hear about what was happening on the front lines, especially from those they knew. Percy would have been limited by censorship and his own judgement on what relatives and friends should be told about his experiences. His letter, dated 30 October 1914, was published in the 14 November 1914 edition of the Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser:

‘Just a few lines to let you know that I am still alive and well, but we must thank God for that, not only me, but all that are left of my regiment, especially after Wednesday's fighting. I had just gone to make a dish of tea for my section when a shell from the Germans ’siege gun fell in a ditch just a few yards from where I was lying. Three men were killed and four wounded. They were all buried alive, but we dug the wounded out of the hole, which was four to six feet deep. As for the poor chaps who were killed, I had better not say anything about them, as it nearly broke our l hearts to see them. They were revenged, however, as the) Germans have made several charges and been driven back with heavy losses. They are getting it hot from our fellows.

The only thing we don't like is not knowing where we are; but one thing we do know is that we have got the enemy back to the Belgian frontier. Will you kindly send me a small wooden pipe I and a few more cigarette papers? I have got plenty of tobacco, I but lost my pipe in action.'

The 2 January 1915 edition of the newspaper published another of Percy’s letters home - possibly aware of a wider audience than his immediate family, he encouraged those at home to stay positive:

'I hope you are getting better weather than we are. It is so bad I here that we have to bale the water out of the trench and the mud is is knee deep. There is not much hope of getting home for Christmas, but we must all make the best of it this year. I hope the Kaiser has plenty of three penny pieces in his Christmas pudding, and that they choke the poor fellow.'

Within a week of the letter’s publication, the 9 January 1915 edition reported Percy was hospitalised ‘somewhere’ in England, suffering from pleurisy.

By spring of 1915, the publication of letters such as Percy’s was discouraged and the Army was also able to ban newspaper journalists from visiting and reporting on the front-line troops. Instead, armies and navies issued official communiques and effectively wrote their own version of battles for the newspapers to publish. Eventually, in response to complaints, official uniformed war correspondents were posted to report for the major newspapers.

Percy Friday recovered from pleurisy and was posted to Dover on Home Service before returning to the Front in 1916. In August 1916 the Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser reported that Percy, now a corporal, had been wounded and was in hospital in Birmingham. This time a deliberately short notice simply states: ‘wounded in the advance’. Patched up again, the next news of Percy appears in the 31 August 1918 edition of the paper; he had been awarded the Military Medal ‘for a gallant act and devotion to duty on May 19th near Albert'.

No details were given as to why he had won the medal but again Percy was in hospital, this time Horton Hospital in Epsom. Percy been in and out of the front line for four years. Despite his ordeal he lived a long life back in Surrey until his death in March 1978, aged 82.

the website editor would like to add further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of his headstone, and any recollections of him

last updated 7 Aug 20