Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Ernest Walton, born on 21st February 1889, was the second son of Hexham tailor John Walton and his wife Isabella (nee Latimer), their first, John William was born in 1885. In 1891 the family were living on Hallstile Bank, Hexham, and ten years later with the addition to the family of Ann Mary and Robert, they had moved to Portland Terrace, where father John was now a master tailor with his own business; Ernest’s youngest brother Thomas was born in 1903. By the age of 21 Ernest was working as a plumber, and was a player for Tynedale Rugby Club in Corbridge.

On 28th March 1913 Ernest departed from Liverpool on board the SS Victorian making for Canada and a new life as a plumber in Winnipeg, where he also joined the 100th Winnipeg Grenadiers, a local militia group. Fourteen months later on 14th May he married Mary Jean Balmer, also from Hexham. They settled in Downing Street, Winnipeg until on 2nd July 1915 Ernest enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

He became Private 147442 in “B” Company, 78th Battalion and after training at Camp Hughes the Battalion sailed for Liverpool on the SS Empress if Britain, arriving on 30th May 1916 and a posting to Bramshott Camp in Hampshire. His wife Jean had arrived back in Liverpool two weeks earlier and returned to live with her parents in Hexham.

12th August 1916 saw the Battalion embark on transport ships at Southampton for the voyage to France and then on to billets at Toronto Camp near Poperinghe, Belgium, where one of their first duties was to attend lectures on phosgene and chlorine gases and on the effects of weeping gas. At the end of the month, having moved camp to Reninghelst they entered the trenches for the first time under the instruction of the 57th Brigade.

Alternating between the front line and time spent in reserve, by the end of March 1917 the Battalion was at Chateau de la Haie ready to move in for an attack which commenced at 5.30am on 9th April. It was here that Private Walton was killed in action on the first day of fighting at Vimy Ridge.

Ernest Walton is remembered in Hexham on H51.03, H51.06 and H51.51 and in Corbridge on C52.05

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Walton