Frome commemoration of Great War veteran who succumbed to Spanish influenza

With thanks to Rev Carol Chaplin and congregation, a special addition to the Sunday service was observed at Wesley Methodist Church, Frome on 10th February, when the family of Great War veteran, Sgt Ernest John Leach, gathered to commemorate the centenary of his passing on 9th February 1919.  

Sgt Ernest Leach’s name is recorded along with 12 others on the church Memorial Tablet, including one Lottie E Giddings, but with the passing of time, so many names are forgotten.  That was until Ernest’s nephew 83-year-old John Leach approached Jane Norris of the Frome RBL.  She and her colleague Dr Jim Clipson gathered together John’s own family records and added further research, to be able to give an address to the congregation.

It was a moving moment for the Leach family, who still live in Frome.  The story of brothers Ernest and Albert Henry, known as Harry was possibly not dissimilar to many others of that time.  The brothers both survived the war, Harry returning to Frome and had amongst his children, John.  Sadly, Ernest, an elite and fit sportsman succumbed to the Spanish influenza that swept the world from 1918.  

So what was his story?  

Ernest John Leach was 22 years-old when he joined the army at Monkton Combe on 17th April 1915 where he was quickly found medically fit and underwent initial training with the 2nd South Western Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, which had its HQ at Frome.  His brother Albert Henry, known as Harry, also joined at the same time and their service numbers were 89437 and 89447 respectively.  

The Field Ambulance was a mobile front line medical unit, manned by troops of the Royal Army Medical Corps; the 2nd South Western Field Ambulance, a Territorial Unit which had been formed in 1908.  A Field Ambulance was responsible for establishing and operating a number of points along the casualty evacuation chain, from the Bearer Relay Posts which were up to 600 yards behind the regimental aid posts in the front line, taking casualties rearwards through an advanced dressing station to the main dressing station.  It was challenging and dangerous and soldiers in these units carried no arms.  

Ernest Leach became part of the wider remit of the RAMC in September 1915 and was made up to Corporal on joining.  He became an Acting Serjeant in October 1917.  There are a number of pages of his army record available – a contrast to most which were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940. Indeed his brother Harry has very little formal records that can be found –even though their documents are but a few pages apart on the army list.  Ernest’s medical records including dental fillings and prescription for spectacles can be found.  He was 5ft 10in – so fairly tall for the time.  

Ernest served in France in 1917 and in Italy from late 1917 until early 1919 when on his passage home on board ship he contracted influenza, was put ashore and died shortly afterwards in hospital.  Telegrams home warn of his grave condition and then of his death.  He is buried in St Germain-au-Mont-D’Or, a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery which is in a village 14.5 kilometres north of Lyon and was the site of a British Hospital until November 1919.  There is a picture of Harry, also an RAMC Serjeant, visiting his brother’s grave in May 1919.  Both brothers received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal – for Ernest it would have been his parents, William Henry and Emma of 24 Alexandra Road, who would have received his medals.  

The Leach brothers were among the many who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Great War – seven men from Frome who served in the RAMC, including Ernest are remembered on the Town Memorial.  

Dr Jim Clipson had his own reasons for being so interested in the story, for if it had not been for the actions of the RAMC, his own family would have been very different.  

He explained, “My maternal grandfather was wounded when storming the Hindenburg Line in late 1918 – the stretcher bearers crossing no-man’s land heard him calling and said Alright Tommy we will find you – my grandfather thought he recognised a voice and said William, William is that you?  The reply came, not the universal Tommy this time but Thomas – don’t worry we are on our way.  My grandfather, Thomas was rescued by his own brother William, a stretcher bearer in the RAMC.”

At the service at Wesley Methodist Church John Leach, himself a Grenadier Guards veteran, read from Revelations Chapter 21, “Where there shall be a new beginning”. Poignant words, as was the poem about the RAMC read by Jane to conclude the commemoration: 

We carry no rifle, bayonet nor bomb

But follow behind in rear

Of the steel fringed line that surges along

With a ringing British cheer.

We make for the spots – khaki-clad helpless blots –

That mark where our front rank fell

We are the men who carry them back

The wounded, the dying and dead.

Lest we Forget”

Jane Norris