Private Ernest Fairhurst was born on May 6th, 1888 to Annie & Henry Fairhurst in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. In England Ernest trained as a butcher, but in 1909, at the age of 21 and on his own, he emigrated to Canada. Eventually, according to the 1911 census, he found himself working and lodging at Levi & Matilda Hall’s farm in Churchville. Interestingly, while the other farm workers featured so far listed their trade as ‘Labourer’, Ernest listed his as ‘Farmer’. 

             On December 6th, 1915, at the age of 27, Fairhurst volunteered to serve in the war and was assigned to the 123rd Battalion C.E.F Royal Grenadiers. He arrived in England 8 months later in August 1916, and by early December he was with his battalion in France. During his first couple of months in France, Fairhurst suffered repeatedly from gastritis, but in mid-February seems to have recovered and rejoined his unit. Sadly, Fairhurst’s unit was at Vimy Ridge on April 11th, 1917 (source: Library & Archives Canada): a day that lives on in infamy as being a particularly terrible one, even for World War 1. On the allies side, 3 193 people lost their lives that day, one of those being Private Ernest Fairhurst (source: Blog - On This Day World War One). Ernest was killed in action and was buried at La Chaudiere Military Cemetery in Vimy. He had written a full will the previous September, appointing Jacob Wisner Hall, son of Levi and Matilda Hall, as the executor of his estate, and asking that all of his possessions be divided equally between his two sisters: Jennie, a “spinster nurse”, and Lilly, the wife of a butcher in England. Jennie was presented with the Memorial Cross in honour of her brother losing his life to the cause (source: Library & Archives Canada).