Ernest George Hayter

Story:
Ernest George Hayter was born in Shaftesbury on 8th August 1886 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29th August 1886, the son of Charles Hayter and Susan Jane Edwards Hayter (née Upjohn).  He lived his early life latterly at 7 St. James Street, Shaftesbury.    By 1911 he was boarding at 21 York Road, Battersea, London, SW, and described as working  'Under Government Army'.   He enlisted and joined the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment and, at the outbreak of war was sent to Mons, Belgium, on 16 Aug 1914 and was almost immediately taken prisoner on 24th August 1914 only three weeks after the conflict began.   He remained a Prisoner of War at a camp near Laz Alexandrinenstr, Germany, until his release at the time of the Armistice.  He returned to Shaftesbury and there married Flora Kate Luke at Holy Trinity Church on 25th December 1918.  He was eventually discharged from the army on 31st March 1920 with a pension and awarded the Victory and British War medals as well as the 1914/15 Star.  The 1921 Census shows him living at 42 Cambria Road, Lambeth, Surrey, as an Indoor Messenger for the Ministry of Agriculture. His wife died in 1938 and he later re-married Ellen Lily May Fordham, a widow, at St. Dionis Church, Fulham, London, on 30 Jul 1939.  By the time of the 1939 Register he was living at 12 Parsons Green Lane, Fulham, London, working as a Paper Keeper with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.  He died at the Westminster Memorial Hospital, Shaftesbury, on 2 Nov 1947  His brothers, Harry John Hayter and Percy Charles Hayter, also served in the conflict.