UNITED WITH HIS FATHER
& FALLEN BROTHER BERT
MY ALL GONE

PRIVATE ERNEST LUCAS

LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS

17TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 21

BURIED: BRANDHOEK NEW MILITARY CEMETERY NO. 3, BELGIUM


Mr and Mrs Albert Francis Lucas had two children, two sons - Albert born in 1894 and Ernest in 1897. Albert enlisted on 9 September 1914, went to France on 7 November 1915 and was serving with the 19th Battalion Manchester Regiment when he was killed in action on 1 July 1916. His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. Ernest's service records haven't survived. He served with the 11th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers and died of wounds at a Casualty Clearing Station at Brandhoek on 17 August 1917. Both sons were unmarried.
Their father, a merchant shippers clerk, died on 5 April 1920, aged 57. As Mrs Sarah Lucas so plainly put it on Ernest's headstone inscription: "My all gone".
Sarah Lucas died in Park Hospital, Davyhulme, Urmston, Lancashire on 4 March 1937 aged 69.