Private Ernest Gothard
Regiment Unknown
Ernest Gothard was born abt. 1895 at Riddings son of John Watts Gothard, an ironworks labourer and his wife Alice (nee Emmett) born Golden Valley. In 1901 the family was living at New Westwood, his father now employed as a bricklayer’s labourer. Siblings are:- Martha Ann b.1887, William Leonard b. 1889, Beatrice Rebecca b. 1891, Sarah Elizabeth b. 1892, Eva b. 1896, Charlotte b. 1898 (Riddings) and Margaret E. b. 1900 at Westwood. Ernest’s brother William Leonard Gothard also served in WW1 and is named on the Jacksdale Memorial.
In 1911 Ernest’s occupation is coal miner, ganger. His mother Alice is not at home with the family on the night of the census, instead she is at the home of Francis and Florence Frost in Ezra Avenue, Nottingham, listed as a maternity nurse. The 1911 Census notes that Ernest’s parents had been married for 23 years and that they had eight children, all of whom had survived, a rare achievement in those days and perhaps due to Alice’s nursing skills.
No information regarding Ernest’s military service has been forthcoming.
In 1925 Ernest married a Ridding’s girl, Mary Jane Slaney and they had children Joan, Gordon and Mary.
Ernest’s mother died in 1930, aged 60 and his father died in 1946, aged 85, both are buried at Westwood, St. Mary’s. Ernest died in 1963, aged 68 in the Basford district.