Labour Corps
Ernest William Douel was born in 1880 in Bedminster, Bristol, and was the son of William John Douel (1851-1905) a porter and his wife Sarah (née Robins: 1856-1900).
It would appear that he was the eldest of their six children. His siblings were Arthur Henry (born 1882), Mabel Florence Annie (1886); Charles Joseph (1888); Frederick William (1890) and Alice Maud (1896).
On 23 December 1905 Ernest married Laura Matilda Robinson (born 1888) at St. Paul’s Church in Gloucester. The marriage register gives his age as 25 and occupation as a labourer: Laura Matilda was 18. They both lived in New Street, Gloucester, Ernest at number 23 and Laura at number 53.
At the time of the 1911 census the couple were living with Ernest’s uncle and aunt at 26 Alma Place, just off Bristol Road in Gloucester and both were workers in the nearby Morelands match factory. The census records the couple as having had two children, on living at the time. These were Alfred who was, sadly, born and died in 1906 and Ellen Sarah J, born in 1907. In 1912 a son, Arthur Ernest J, was born.
Unfortunately, it would appear that virtually no documentary evidence of Ernest’s Army service has survived. Researching this was made more difficult due to some of the digital translation of the relatively unusual name of ‘Douel’ on the family history website Ancestry! His Army Service Record was, presumably, lost, along with about 65% of the records, during the Blitz on London in 1940. He did not, apparently, receive a Silver War Badge, to denote discharge from active service due to wounds or sickness and neither does there appear to be any Army Pension Record.
It is therefore impossible to determine at what point Edmund joined the Army, of when he left it or the unit within the Labour Corps in which he served. There is no evidence of a Medal Index Card, which probably implies that his service was all in the UK.
The Labour Corps was formed in early 1917 and normally contained some not considered fit for front line service. If Edmund joined it directly in 1917 he would have been about 37 years of age and possibly given a low category fitness grade.
What has survived is an entry in the Register of Soldiers’ Effects held at the National Army Museum and digitised via Ancestry. This states his date of death and that he died whilst on ‘demob furlough’. The implication is therefore that he died around the time of his discharge from the Army. A recently released Pension Record Card only states that a £7 Widow’s Allowance was paid to his wife, then living at 13 Albany Street, Gloucester.
Ernest William Douel died on 13 March 1919, aged 38 . The place and cause of death is unknown, in the absence of the sight of a Death Certificate. Possibly he was one of the thousands of victims of the influenza pandemic raging at the time. He was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
His widow re-married in 1922. Her new husband was Arthur Henry Douel, Ernest’s younger brother, who had spent a considerable period of time (including some of the Great War) in the Royal Navy.
There is an intriguing memorial notice posted in the Gloucester Citizen dated 15 March 1921 to mark the second anniversary of Edmund’s death in which it is stated to be ‘from sorrowful sisters and brothers, Alice, Mabel (in Canada), Fred and Charlie’. There is no mention of their brother Arthur: is that because his brothers and sisters did not approve of their brother’s developing relationship with their bereaved sister-in-law? Arthur and Laura had a daughter, also named Laura Matilda, in 1923.
Researched by Graham Adams 12 November 2019