Ernest Edward Lucas

Story:
Ernest Edward Lucas was born in Melbury Abbas, Shaftesbury, Dorset, on 17th September 1898 and baptised there on 20th Nov 1898. He was the son of Alfred Charles Lucas and Annie Mary Lucas (née Henstridge). He lived all his early life in and around Melbury Abbas. He enlisted with the Dorsetshire Regiment as a Private (Service No. 14487) and served with the 5th Battalion in the Balkans from 16 Oct 1915.  He later transferred to the Essex Regiment (Service No. 59134).  On his discharge on 8th August 1919 he was awarded the Victory and British War medals as well as the 1915 Star.  He married Mildred Rose Barnes in Melksham, Wiltshire, in 1920.  The Census of 1921 shows him living at High Road, Galhampton, Noth Cadbury, Somerst, working as a Farm Labourer. By the 1939 Register he had moved to 4 Penn View, Wincanton, Somerset, and was working as a Builders General Labourer.   His wife, Mildred, died in 1962 and he remarried, to Gladys Maud Sims in Wincanton, Somerset, in 1963.   Ernest died in Wincanton in 1970.