Soldier Record

My Grandfather attended Roger Manwood's Grammar School in Sandwich having won a scholarship. Then was in training for the post of town clerk at Ramsgate. His father was a fisherman and they lived at Elizaberth Terrace Mews behind Albion Place. Eric volunteered and was a sentry guard at Buckingham Palace living in the Chelsea Barracks. Aged 22 he was sent to France and had only been in Abbeville for a short time when he was wounded. He was advised to walk to a field hospital for treatment and told not to walk through Abbeville wood. He ignored the advice went into the wood and was blown up by a mine planted by the Germans. No remains. This was the 25th September l9l6. On the 10th December his son Eric Leslie John Wilfred White was born to his wife Hilda. Hilda searched the hospitals for her husband but eventually received confirmation of his death and his war medals. All his life his son mourned the father he'd never known. On the 25th September 2008 I visited the Thiepval Memorial and Abbeville. The first person of his family to do so - no-one knew his name was on the memorial until I found it this year through the war graves commission. I am his grandaughter born on V.J. Day. I laid a wreath of Kentish Hops in his memory, a red silk poppy and a photo of his son who became a Flt/Lt. in the Royal Air Force.It was a most emotional and moving experience and I am so glad that I went.