Pte 300479 Ernest Statham Hankinson

• Age: 20
• From: Wigan
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 8th May 1918
• Commemorated at: Tyne Cot Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 31-34

Ernest Statham Hankinson was born in the March quarter of 1898 in Wigan the son of Edward Statham Hankinson and his wife Henrietta (nee Ridgway). His parents were both from Warrington, Lancashire, married there in 1887, and lived there until 1894. They moved briefly to Chorlton, Lancashire, and by 1896 had settled in Wigan, Lancashire.

The couple had 13 children, 3 of whom sadly died. Ernest was the sixth born of the surviving ten children. He had older siblings Ethel, James, Edward, Herbert, and Frederick, and younger siblings May, Edna, Henrietta, and George.

In 1901 the family is living at 304 Ormskirk Road, in Pemberton, Wigan.  His father is a mechanical engineer. They have seven children; Ernest is 3. Also in the household is his widowed maternal grandmother, Sarah Ridgway.

In 1911, the parents with all 10 children are living in 6 private rooms in the Oddfellows’ Arms, Liverpool Road, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire.  His father is the publican, and sister Ethel is assisting in the business. Brother James is a plumber, Edward is a house painter, Herbert is a printer. Frederick, Ernest, and the younger children are at school; Ernest is 13. 

Ernest enlisted in Knowsley Park, Prescott, Lancashire, in October 1914 as Private 250542 joining the Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry. He would have been sixteen years old and must have lied about his age to enlist. All four of Edward’s brothers of military age joined up: James joined the Royal Engineers, Edward enlisted in the Border Regiment, Herbert in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, and Frederick, like Ernest, joined the Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry. 

In 1916 his brother Edward died. He had been wounded at Gallipoli in 1915, then was sent to the Western Front, where he was again wounded in action and died of his wounds on 24^th February 1916.  Edward Hankinson, Pte 11854 Border Regiment now lies in Corbie Communal Cemetery, Somme, France. His gravestone is inscribed, “May He Rest In Peace”. He was 23.

In 1917 his brother Herbert, Pte 12753 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, was killed on 24th April 1917. His body was never recovered, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Somme, France. He was 22.

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station. 

On 8^th June 1918, just one month after Ernest was killed his father Edward died, age 54. He was still the publican at the Oddfellows Arms. His mother Henrietta lived until 1928, grieving the loss of three sons as well as her husband.

Soldiers Effects and the Pensions of Edward, Herbert and Ernest to mother Henrietta

His brother James was mobilized in 1917; Sapper 242222 Hankinson, Royal Engineers, was discharged in 1919.

His brother Frederick, like Ernest, was later absorbed into the 18^th Bn King’s Liverpool Regiment as Cpl 300526. He was wounded in action on 09^th September 1918, with gunshot wounds to his arm, shoulder, knee, and thigh, and invalided to England. He was finally discharged in September 1919, having served 4 years and 345 days.

Ernest, along with his two brothers, is commemorated on the Ashton memorial, and in St. Oswald’s RC Church. 

Sadly, the Bronze Plaques of all three brothers, issued to families of fallen soldiers, were recently offered for sale online for £475.

We currently have no further information on Ernest Statham Hankinson. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.