Ernest Banwell was a stoker and one of 737 men, including Lord Kitchener, lost on the Armoured Cruiser HMS Hampshire off the west coast of Orkney when it was believed to have struck a mine.
He had been born in Walthamstow, the son of Albert and Edith Banwell and in 1901 was living there with his widowed father and both were labourers in the brickfield. Albert was a native of Somerset and in 1901 we learn that Edith was from Suffolk.
At some point Ernest arrived in Hartlepool and in 1911 is at High Street Hartlepool in a boarding house owned by George Barton. He was at this point a dock labourer.
As Ernest's name is on the Hartlepool Roll of Honour, it seems likely that he was living in Hartlepool when he joined the Royal Naval Reserve. However, on his death, his father (given as John) was informed of his son's death at his home in Walthamstow.
