BRITISH WAR MEDAL 1914-18 TO WIA. 6128 Pte. E.S.Lewis. 9-Bn. A.I.F. Impressed. Toned very fine.
Ernest Sylvester Lewis, shop assistant, age 21, born at Rockhampton, Qld; Enl.20Jan1916 at Toowoomba, Qld; Emb.08Aug1916; to France and TOS 9Bn 6Mar1917; WIA 20Sep1917 shrapnel wounds to both legs, at Zillbeke, Belgium when the unit was caught in an enemy barrage which killed all its Company commanders, half its junior officers and many men; to hospital and amputated right thigh as leg had been blown away; RTA 08Apr1918; Disch.30Jul1918 Medically Unfit.
At Brisbane, late on Saturday night, 4 June 1938, a Police Constable from the Valley Police Station found the body of Ernest Sylvester Lewis in Centenary Place near the tramway office with a half-empty bottle of poison beside the body. In one of the pockets was a note giving instructions for the disposal of his body. Following this a funeral service was held by relatives and friends at the Funeral Chapel, Stanley Street, South Brisbane and the burial was at Toowong Cemetery. Members of the Limbless Soldiers' Association were also invited to attend.
With research.