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Pte. Ernest Edgar Sawyer
British Army A Sqd. Bedfordshire Yeomanry
from:Bedford
(d.31st March 1918)
Ernest Sawyer was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1895. In 1910 his family moved to Bedford in England where he was educated at Bedford School.
In 1914, he joined the Queens Engineering works as a trainee engineer and he volunteered for overseas service at the beginning of the war. His recruitment card shows that he reported for training on the 22nd September 1914. He served with A Squadron, Bedfordshire Yeomanry and with the exception of two leaves at Christmas 1916 and February 1918, was in France throughout the war until his death. He was killed on the 31st March 1918 at Marcelcave near Villers Bretonneux during the German Spring offensive and his grave was lost during the subsequent fighting over the battlefield.
He was the only son of Ernest and Elizabeth Sawyer and had four younger sisters. He is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Pozieres, and on the school memorials at Bedford School, Bedford and St Davids, Inanda, South Africa.
