Current Information:

Born-Marylebone

Enlisted-London

Spoilbank Cemetery, Belgium

On 22nd April, 1915, the 1st Lincolnshire battalion of 9 Brigade, 3rd Division moved into the front line astride the Comines-Ypres canal at Ypres where they remained for the rest of the month. Ernest Rooke was killed on 23rd April but the battalion diary provides no further information concerning his death. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.