Newly Married and Decorated Bedford Soldier Killed

Ernest Fulford

Sunday 21st April 1918: With intense fighting continuing on the Western Front news of local casualties continues to arrive with terrible frequency. These include Bedford soldier Sergeant Ernest Walter Fulford of the Royal Engineers, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on 28th December 1917. On 16th January while home on a short leave he married Miss Edith May Whitmore at St. Cuthbert’s Church, Bedford.  Sergeant Fulford was born in Bedford and educated at the Goldington Road Schools. Before the war he worked at the Goldington Road Steam Laundry as an assistant engineer. His parents live at 116 Bower Street and his wife at 6 Greenhill Street. Sergeant Fulford was killed by a shell. His commanding officer wrote to his mother that “I have always regarded him more as a friend rather than as my sergeant. He was a very fine character, keen, brave and conscientious. His death is a personal loss to all who knew him.”

Source: Bedfordshire Times, 19th April 1918