Ernest Matthew Knighton was born at Middleton's Lane in the village of Yaxley, Huntingdonshire on October 9, 1918[1], near the end of World War I. His father Ernest Jabez Knighton was a Lance Corporal in the Northamptonshire Regiment at the time. His middle name comes from his uncle Matthew Coles who had died earlier in the war.
He had two older siblings, Florence and Jabez who both died young; Florence died two months after he was born and Jabez died two years prior.
Ernie grew up outside the village of Thorney, Cambridgeshire at the address of 21 Thorney Dyke. He lost his mother Ethel at the age of fourteen. His father was strict and made him and his younger brothers work hard. He was a witness at the marriage of his brother Tom. In the 1939 register he is living with his father, younger brothers and a housekeeper named Kate Quincey.[2]
During World War II he was a Driver in the Royal Army Service Corps. He was captured as a prisoner of war on June 2, 1943 in Italy. He managed to escape by hiding in pile of manure in the back of a truck over the Swiss border.[3]
At some point in the war he visited the town of Matlock in Derbyshire. He fell in love with the area due to its picturesque hills and cliffs, a far cry from the flat, featureless land he was born and grew up on. After the war, he returned and lived there for the rest of his life.[4] He met his wife Irene Gill and married her on Jan 23, 1946 at the Imperial Road Methodist Church in Bakewell, Derbyshire.[5] They had two children; Veronica and Charles.
Ernie held several jobs during his life; farm worker, brick layer, lumberjack, lorry driver and furnaceman. He was talented at woodwork and looking after animals. He had rabbit hutches and beehives in his garden.[6]
He developed lung cancer in his sixties. A photo was taken of him with his three younger brothers, this would be the last time they were all together. He died on August 11, 1986 at Whitworth Hospital in Darley Dale, Derbyshire.[7] He was buried at Matlock on August 15, 1986.[8]
This week's featured connections are Redheads: Ernest is 20 degrees from Catherine of Aragón, 21 degrees from Clara Bow, 26 degrees from Julia Gillard, 20 degrees from Nancy Hart, 19 degrees from Rutherford Hayes, 20 degrees from Rita Hayworth, 24 degrees from Leonard Kelly, 19 degrees from Rose Leslie, 23 degrees from Damian Lewis, 22 degrees from Maureen O'Hara, 27 degrees from Jopie Schaft and 39 degrees from Eirik Thorvaldsson on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
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Categories: Matlock, Derbyshire | Yaxley, Huntingdonshire