2nd Lieutenant, 3rd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, attached 15th Battalion.
Killed in action on 1st July 1916, age 26.
Remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Former student of French and Flemish.
Ernest was born in 1889 at Bacup, Lancashire, the son of John and Mary Elizabeth Jackson. He arrived to study French and Flemish at Manchester University in 1906, gaining a B.A. in 1910, and M.A and teaching diploma in 1911. After University he became assistant headmaster at Tynemouth Municipal High School. However, when war broke out he and his wife, Lilian May, were living in Leeds where he had been employed as modern language master at Leeds Boys Modern School.
Ernest joined the Rifle Brigade as a Rifleman in April 1915 and was then commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the 3rd Lancashire Fusiliers on 5th June 1915. He was attached to the 15th (1st Salford Pals) Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers with whom he went over the top in their first full offensive action as they assaulted the heavily fortified Thiepval Ridge on 1st July 1916. Well trained and with superb moral they unfortunately lacked combat experience. Against intact positions almost untouched by the bombardment and skilfully defended they were almost wiped out. Ernest was among the casualties they suffered that day.