Ernest William Roome was born in Nash Mills, Hertfordshire on 23rd February 1879 and was baptised at St Mary’s Church, Apsley End two months later of 20th April. He was the first child born to William Roome and Harriet Annie Ensom who had five children together: Ernest William, Alice May, Edith Annie, Frank Albert and Lilian Blanche. Edith died aged one in 1888 and Alice passed away in 1903 when she was nineteen years old.

After leaving school, Ernest went to work with John Dickinson & Co. Limited in the Engineering Department where he was an "Engineer’s Labourer". His future wife, Elizabeth Bennett also worked at Dickinsons and lived locally in Abbot’s Langley and she and Ernest married in 1903 in the village. They had a large family together raising seven children who were: Ernest, May Lilian, Alice, Ada, Robert and Edward. The also had three other children who tragically died in infancy; William in 1903, then Edward and Emily in 1904.

Ernest volunteered as soon as war broke out in August 1914 and attested at Chelsea in London, where he enlisted with the Grenadier Guards and was sent for basic training. He was posted to the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and went overseas on the 6th November 1915, where he disembarked the following day at Boulogne-sur-Mer, before joining his unit a few days later at Lapugnoy about forty-five miles away.

For the next eight months, Ernest spent time in the trenches and was with the Battalion in reserve at the opening engagements of the Somme offensive. He did not see his first serious action until he fought in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in September 1916, when the British deployed the newly invented ‘tank’ for the first time. The Grenadiers came in for some heavy shelling before and during the battle and suffered significant casualties during the first few days of the attack. On the 14th, 15th and 16th September the Battalion incurred a total of 359 men Killed, Wounded or Missing.

Drafts numbering 121 men arrived to help reinforce the Battalion, but a week later in the Battle of Morval, a further 330 men were casualties. Fortunately for Ernest he came through the carnage unscathed and the rest of the year was spent rebuilding the Battalion before moving to Flanders. On the 31st July 1917, Ernest fought in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, the opening action in the Third Battle of Ypres. Once again, the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards suffered greatly and the Battalion War Diaries recorded 267 casualties, approximately one third of the unit fighting strength. The Battles of Menin Road, Poelkapelle and the First Battle of Passchendaele followed in September and October, before Ernest fought in the Battle of Cambrai at the end of the year. Casualties incurred numbered 151, but Ernest again survived the action.

His luck finally ran out in March 1918 when he fought in a series of actions starting on the 21st March. The 2nd Grenadiers were in support first at the Battle of St Quentin and then at Bapaume and casualties were mercifully light. However, on the 26th and 27th their positions came under persistent heavy shelling from the Germans and it was during this action that Ernest fell.

He was killed on Wednesday, 27th March 1918.

His death was briefly reported in the Hemel Gazette in April, though his name was recorded incorrectly.

Ernest was commemorated in a Memorial Book in the church of St Lawrence, Abbots Langley and on the John Dickinson & Co. War Memorial at Apsley End.

Ernest is Remembered with Honour in Merville Communal Cemetery, Nord, France, where he is interred in Grave VI. G. 4.

He was 39 years old when he died.

Ernest was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.