MINETT, Ernest Charles
| Service Numbers: | 2948, 2948A |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 7 February 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 31st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, 6 October 1890 |
| Home Town: | Ipswich, Queensland |
| Schooling: | West Ipswich State School, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation: | Painter |
| Died: | Killed in action, France, 1 December 1916, aged 26 years |
| Cemetery: |
Guards Cemetery, Lesboeufs, Picardie Plot X, Row I, Grave No. 9 |
| Memorials: | Ipswich Soldier's Memorial Hall Great War, West Ipswich & One Mile War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 7 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2948, 31st Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr 1916: | Involvement Private, 2948A, 31st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 14 Apr 1916: | Embarked Private, 2948A, 31st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney |
Help us honour Ernest Charles Minett's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Ernest Minett’s death was reported in the Queensland Times (Ipswich) on 7 March 1917 when they printed a letter from a friend, Pte. Eric Germain, also of the 31st Battalion.
“..the sight of all is Delville Wood, where only the biggest and strongest trees are left standing. It was a fair-sized place, and the timber was good but now it is an indescribable wreck. There are big trees absolutely splintered, trenches hardly recognisable, and the bodies that still lie there tell the tale of the grim fights that took place. Of course, to find a leaf on a tree is out of the question, and there is a fragment of shell in almost every
bit of wood you might pick up. Then come out of the wood on to the ground beyond. For at least a mile I don't think you could find a piece of original surface large enough to stand a horse upon; it's all pocked and pitted. On the edge of the wood there still remains a tank, and one can discern the track it came by the trail of dead it left behind it…It is directly in front of this but about three or four miles back, that our chum, Ern. Minett (late of Pring-street), is buried. Poor Ern! All who knew him felt very sorry when he was killed: they all said he was such a nice chap. It was very hard, but, as our mutual chum, Fred Caton, says, 'We are at war; thousands have gone before, and many more will probably have to go also.”
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