260682 Sgt. Ernest James Smith British Army 116th Railway Coy. Royal Engineers from:27 Boyne Valley Road, Maidenhead, Berks. (d.25th Sep 1918) Ernest Smith was my paternal grandfather. He was employed by the Great Western Railway. My father who was born in December 1910 told me several times that his father came home one day and told his wife, my father, and his brother that he could no longer stay at home and was joining the Royal Engineers. He was posted to Palestine and somewhere along the line promoted to Sergeant.
He was killed on 25th of September 1918. My father told me it was the result of an accident caused by an officer's eagerness to complete a new length of track. Be that as it may, my grandfather is buried in the Ramleh Cemetery. I have photographs of his headstone and a general view of the cemetery. When I received them, it dawned on me that it was unlikely that my father, or his brother, or his mother had ever seen the photos, which came from the CWGC.
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