The life and autograph album of Andrew Ernest (Ernie) Horton
This note draws the attention of researchers to a newly transcribed ebook entitled AE Horton His Life and Autographs on the website of the Folkestone and District Local History Society.
Ernie Horton (1894-1987) was brought up in Folkestone in Kent where he lived before the outbreak of the First World War, and where he was employed as a Market Gardener. His father was a wheelwright and during the First World War worked in aircraft manufacture at Bristol.
Ernie enlisted in the 2/2 Home Counties Field Ambulance (RAMC) as a private in January 1915 and later in the year was appointed a nursing orderly. From January 1915 to December 1916, he wrote down the marches he undertook, his training and the places where he was involved in nursing. These included Cornwall Hall and St John’s Hospital, Sevenoaks, and East Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital, Ipswich. In July 1916, he left Ipswich for Warminster, Salisbury Plain, and lived in Hut 13 at Sutton Veny Camp. The Biographical details of Ernie Horton are available on this website at the beginning of the ebook mentioned in the first paragraph of this note.
From October 1916, Ernie kept an autograph album which contains the autographs including paintings contributed by wounded German prisoners of war who were being treated at Sutton Veny Military Hospital, Warminster.
During 1917 and 1918, the album was signed by British soldiers and by Ernie’s colleagues in the RAMC when Ernie was a nursing orderly on the Western Front with the 2/2 Home Counties Field Ambulance.
Ernie was discharged from the army in 1919 but after a fruitless search for work in London and Folkestone, he and his younger brother who had been in the Pioneer Corps emigrated to Canada where Ernie worked for the Montreal Heat and Power Company. His family, particularly his daughter Mollie and sister Eva Baker, were keen that his medals, photographs and autograph album were returned to his home town of Folkestone.
The Folkestone and District Local History Society are grateful to the family for this loan and their names are acknowledged on page 85. The Committee decided to scan the album and put it on the website so historians could research the names of the soldiers who are included in the index which follows. The album with Ernie’s biography will shortly be available as a physical book too. Please see the order form on the website. We hope you will let us know if the album has thrown light on your researches.
INDEX OF SOLDIERS
GERMAN SOLDIERS
Ahlrep, Otto. 37, 43, 44
Allison, Frederik. 28
Amrhein, Jonaz. 30, 49, 51
Bald Pl. 51
Bauer, Friedrich. 29, 51
Becker, H. 51
Biehler, A. 51
Bülow, H. 51
Ebbecke, R. 51
Eisenberger, H. 51
Fick, Ch. 51
Haas, Emil. 34, 51.
Hawlicek, F. 51
Hepp, Pl. 51
Herger, L. 51
Hühsam, C. 51
Janusch, W. 51
Kohl, M. 51
Lange, O. 51
Leichtl, J. 51
Matuszewski, L. 51
Menning, W. 51
Merz, J. 51
Mewes, Otto. 30, 51
Müller, J. 51
Peuckert, Johann. 16, 51
Ristenbieter, Otto. 27, 31, 57, 71, 72
Sachs, Karl. 51, 61
Schneider, A. 51
Treuefest, Jn. 30
Vogt, L. 51
Wegman, B. 51
Wittmann, H. 51
Wolf, J. 51
BRITISH SOLDIERS
Ayling, W.J. 74
Boddy, Chas. W.N. 21, 81
Bradley, Gunner E. 67
Bramble, Alfred A. 45, 58
Breeze, Douglas 47
Collins, Frank 47
Crane, R.K. 18, 48, 54, 63, 73, 76
Elvey, R.W. 41
English, Claude W. 55
Horton, A.E (Ernie). 1-12, 77
Jackson, Sgt. T.L. 60
Kay, J.S.C. 38
Larkins, F.B. 25
Mackay, L/Cp. 35
Maycock, B. 39
Maynard, H. 19
Pask, D. 23
Pike, W.D. 66
Rogers, V. 64
Sayers, Sgt. H. 79
Spaul, S.W. 32
Wild, J. 52
