Private Stephen William Emery, Messines Ridge

[BullerTurner]

Is anybody planning a visit to Messines Ridge cemetery soon?  An old friend of mine has a great uncle, Private Steven William Emery, interred there. It would be nice if I could get her a photograph of his grave?  He was 27839 Pte Stephen William Emery of the 8th Battalion, SLI. He is in plot II.C.12.

 

He was of only two fatalities in the battalion on the 12th July and I am thinking probably a shell claimed him and Private Ernest Tomkins.  His brother received life-changing injuries (amputee, leg) in the same battalion but not necessarily on that day. 8 SLI appear to have had a busy old July!  He sadly didn’t cope well and “drank himself to death“, according to family legend.

stephen Emery is commemorated on the Malmesbury memorial cross.