Ernest Fallows was born in Hornsey, Middlesex on 13th January 1891 and attended the school. He joined the school on 1st January 1903. His previous school was Christchurch Road.
His family lived at Mansell Villa in Coventry Road. He was one of seven children of John and Louisa Fallows. His father was a cabinet maker. His older sisters, Grace and Kathleen had also attended the Ilford Country Hig School, in the Girl’s Department.
In the 1911 Census, Ernest was single and working as a furniture salesman for a ladies’ tailor called Steick Tilman, in Clapham Road, Lambeth.
Ernest is recorded on a supplementary list for the first Roll of Honour (in the Christmas 1914 school magazine). It gives his regiment as the Westminster Dragoons.
He was later a Second Lieutenant with the Irish Guards (attached to the 4th Guards Machine gun Battalion) and died, aged 27, on 25th March 1918 as the German’s launched their last major offensive. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial (Bay 1). His promotion to Second Lieutenant occurred on 26th May 1917 and was announced in the London Gazette on 19th June 1917.
Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
The London Gazette (19/06/1917)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Note
Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.