Ernest Henry Haswell Burke was born in late 1899 in Clerkenwell Middlesex, the only son of Rhoda Rebecca Haswell. At the time of Ernest’s birth, his mother worked as a Barmaid in the Baker’s Arms pub on Lea Bridge Road, Leyton in northeast London. Three years after he was born, his mother married Edmund Burke, a Printer’s Labourer from west London and Ernest adopted his step-father’s name. When Ernest started his education it was at Westminster City School on Palace Street which was an amalgamation the charters and foundations of several historic charity schools. It was formed by Act of Parliament in 1873 and took its name in 1890 and still drew many of its cohort from poorer boys in the vicinity. It is not known exactly when Ernest left school or where he went to work, but it seems likely that he was training in the legal profession, possibly as a clerk when war broke out. This is because he chose to enlist with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps as soon as he was old enough to volunteer.

The Inns of Court Officer Training Corps was based in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire during the First World War and was originally part of the London Territorial Force and consisted mainly of men connected with the law courts. Ernest attested in Holborn on the 3rd July 1918 and joined the Inns of Court OTC and was sent to Berkhamsted immediately to beginning basic training. However, only two months after he arrived and approaching the final week of the war, Ernst died as the result of Pneumonia which he developed after contracting Influenza. He was one of the millions of victims who died during the “Spanish Flu” epidemic which swept the world in 1918 and early 1919.

Ernest died in West Herts Hospital in Hemel Hempstead on Saturday, 2nd November 1918 and he was buried five days later in Heath Lane Cemetery on Thursday, 7th November.

He was commemorated on the war memorial plaque at his old school in the City of Westminster.

Ernest is Remembered with Honour in the Hemel Hempstead (Heath Lane) Cemetery, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, where he is interred in Grave XB. 43. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his mother Rhoda, reads: “UNTIL THE DAY BREAKS”.

 

He was only 18 years old when he died.

Ernest was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.