223898 Pte. Ernest Harold Froom British Army 7/8th Btn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers from:Somerset Private Ernest Harold Froom was my grandad from Somerset. He was in the 7/8 Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. On the 15th April 1918 he was one of a hundred people to receive a suspended court-martial on the same day. The regiment was being disbanded and they went on strike to prevent it. The high number of non Irish soldiers striking shows the camaraderie and respect these merged replacements had for a regiment they previously had no attachment to. They were formed into the unit to replace lost soldiers and to form a unit from their own disbanded units. The unusual event was remarkable in that the sentence normally punishable by death was suspended. They all went back to fight the following day. He later fought in the Inninnskillin black and tans in Ireland after the end of the war in Europe so he must not have had too bad a punishment in 1918.
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