Reg. Hornsby has provided the following:
2nd Lieutenant Oscar Earnshaw
Unit: 177th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers
Home Base prior to enlistment: Hamsterley Colliery, Co. Durham
Killed in action (age not known) on Friday 2nd June 1916
Commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial Ieper (Ypres) Belgium.
Supplementary Notes:
1. 2nd Lieutenant Earnshaw enlisted in March 1916, only about three months prior to his death.
2. The War Diary is not clear, but it seems that he was killed (originally reported as ‘missing believed killed’) whilst working in a tunnel either in the Hooge or Railway Wood areas, although his name does not appear on the inscription on the Cross of Sacrifice at the latter’s RE Grave.
Morpeth Herald 04/08/1916 carries a brief obituary:
Mrs Oscar Earnshaw, of West High House, Hamsterley Colliery, Durham, has received the following message:- "The King and Queen deeply regret the loss that the Army has sustained by the death of your husband, Lieut. Oscar Earnshaw, in the service of his country. Their Majesties truly sympathise with you in your sorrow." – Signed by the Keeper of the Privy Purse.
Oscar Earnshaw is remembered at Hamsterley Colliery on H140.01, H140.03 and H140.04 at Medomsley on M36.01 and in Newcastle on NUT009 and NUT238
