Thompson, Ernest Oscar (Ernie)
Rifleman
No. 7020212, 7th Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles attached 5th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Accidentally drowned on Wednesday 17 November 1943 (aged 21)
Buried:
Bangor Cemetery, Co. Down (Section 4. U. Grave 25)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Bangor and District War Memorial
Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St. Comgall’s)
Family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery
Son of Constable William Oscar Thompson
BIOGRAPHY
Ernest Oscar (Ernie) Thompson was baptised in Bangor Abbey Church of Ireland Church on 11 October 1922, and he was the third son of Margaret Thompson (nee Stockdale) and the late William Oscar (Bill) Thompson who were married on 2 April 1910 in Bangor Abbey Church of Ireland Church. William Thompson (aged 21), a groom from Castle Street, Bangor was a son of Frederick Thompson, a constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Margaret Stockdale (aged 21) from Bangor was a daughter of Robert Stockdale, a farmer.
William Oscar (Bill) Thompson worked as a window cleaner and he and Margaret Thompson (nee Stockdale) had at least six children:
Margaret Ellen (born 6 September 1910 at 43 Beatrice Road, Bangor)
William John (born 24 February 1912 at 43 Beatrice Road, Bangor)
Esther Eveline (born 14 August 1913 at 43 Beatrice Road, Bangor)
Thomas Clarence (born 7 October 1920 at 14 King Street, Bangor)
Ernest Oscar (born 1922)
Cecil (born 1925)
Later the Thompson family lived at 42 Railwayview Street, Bangor.
Bill Thompson served throughout the First World War with the Royal Field Artillery and he joined up again in May 1940. Between the two world wars he operated a window cleaning business in Bangor.
Before Ernie enlisted in September 1940, he worked in his father’s window cleaning business.
Ernie Thompson was 18, and Anna McWilliams was 17, when they got married on 10 August 1940 in Newtownards Registrar’s Office. Ernie and Anna Thompson (nee McWilliams) lived at 45 King Street, Bangor, and they had two children.
Rifleman Ernie Thompson was accidentally drowned on 17 November 1943 while on active service on the Home Front, in Boston, Lincolnshire.
His father, Constable William Oscar Thompson, was drowned on 22 August 1940 while serving with the Military Police in Scotland.
His brother Cecil (aged 15½) died on 9 November 1940.
His brother Clarence (Clarrie) was on active service in Italy.
Rifleman Ernie Thompson (No. 7020212) was 21 when he died, and he was buried in Bangor Cemetery on 24 November 1943. The services were conducted by the Rev James Hamilton of Bangor Abbey.
Rifleman Ernest Oscar Thompson is commemorated on Bangor and District War Memorial; in Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St. Comgall’s) and on the family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery.