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22/05/1898 - 15/10/1917

Place of birth: Bromley, Kent
Last known address in Bromley: 8 Park Road

Military information

Regiment/Service: Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
Battalion/Ship: 6th Bn
Rank: Corporal
Number: 832

Family information

Parents: Frederick & Clara Annie Bunting (nee Bishop)
Parents' occupation: Policeman
Siblings: Clara Emma, Florence Maud, Minnie Ethel (d), Frederick William, Edith Beatrice, Mabel, Bertie, Horace James

Census information

1901
Address: 43 Park End
1911
Address: 8 Park Road

Extra details

Ernest was the second youngest of Frederick and Clara Bunting's nine children. After school he was in the employ of Messrs Uridge's Stores as a warehouseman.

Ernest enlisted in the Royal West Kents on 2nd September 1914, stating his age as 19 years & 3 months when in fact he was only 16 years & 3 months old. He was described as being 5ft 4½ins tall, weighing 122lbs,fresh complexion, blue eyes, brown hair and having a tattoo on his left forearm. After training he was posted to the Front on 1st June 1915. During the battle to take the German Hohenzollern Redoubt, a defensive position north of Loos-en-Gohelle, Ernest received a gunshot wound to the left side of his face which necessitated his return to England, on 12th March 1916, for treatment at London General Hospital, Wandsworth. He remained in England until 13th June 1917, by which time he had been promoted to Corporal.

On 14th October Ernest received a gunshot wound to his right buttock and was gassed during a successfully attack on the German trenches Strap and Buckle. He died the next day at 19 Casualty Clearing Station.