Ernest Seaman VC

b. 16/08/1893 Norwich, Norfolk. d. 29/09/1918 Terhand, Belgium.

Ernest Seaman (1893-1918) was born on 16th August 1893 at 9 Derby Street, Heigham, Norwich, Norfolk. His father is not known. His mother, Sarah Elizabeth Seaman nee March, born in Horsford, Norfolk, married Henry William Seaman, a miller from Litcham, Norfolk, at St Faith’s, Norwich in 1874. Sarah was a laundress. Henry Seaman died in 1889, and she remarried to Edward Augustus Palmer in 1904 in Norwich. Edward was the landlord of the King’s Head Inn, Scole, Norfolk, and also ran a pony and trap service for passengers from Diss Station. In addition to Ernest, Sarah had nine other children.

Ernest Seaman VC MM

Ernest was educated at Scole Council School (later Scole Primary School), Norwich Road, Thelverton, Diss, Norfolk. He was known as “Peddler Palmer” at school. He worked as a page boy at the Grand Hotel, Felixstowe, Suffolk and was later employed aboard a trans-Atlantic P&O liner and as a billiard marker at the Cocoa Tree Club in London. He is reported to have emigrated to Canada in 1912 but returned to enlist in 1915.

Ernest tried to enlist in the Army in December 1915 but was not considered strong enough for field service and was assigned to the Expeditionary Force Canteens in the Army Service Corps. He went to France in 28th December 1915. Fitness standards were lowered with the increasing number of casualties and he was drafted into the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in late 1917. He was regarded as a good soldier, who consistently volunteered for extra work, regardless of danger or difficulty. His constant devotion to duty in attending to wounded comrades under heavy fire, earned him a commendation for the Military Medal by Captain VES Mattocks, commanding A Company, 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusilier. However, the award was not approved. He was promoted to lance corporal on 15th September 1918.

On 29th September 1918, at Terhand, Belgium, when the right flank of his company was held up by a nest of enemy machine-guns, Lance-Corporal Seaman with great courage and initiative, rushed forward under heavy fire with his Lewis gun and engaged the machine gun position single-handed, capturing two machine-guns and 12 prisoners, and killing one officer and two men. Later in the day he again rushed another enemy machine-gun post, capturing the gun under very heavy fire. He was killed immediately afterwards.

Ernest’s body was not recovered after the action, and he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Passchendaele. His commanding officer was incorrect, instead of a MM, Ernest was awarded a posthumous VC. On 13th February 1919 at Buckingham Palace, King George V presented the medal to Ernest Seaman’s mother Sarah. He is commemorated in a number of other places – with Ernest Seaman Close in Scole, Norfolk, at Scole War Memorial, with a VC commemorative stone at Norwich War Memorial (dedicated on 29th September 2018), at Felixstowe War Memorial, on the Irish Regiment VCs memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire, on the memorial stone at Ulster Tower, Thiepval, France, and finally on the St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast memorial.

In addition to the VC, he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20 and Victory Medal 1914-19. The VC is held by the Royal Army Service Corps / Royal Corps of Transport Institution and is displayed in the Royal Logistic Corps Museum, Worthy Down, Winchester, Hampshire.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: ROYAL LOGISTIC CORPS MUSEUM, WORTHY DOWN, WINCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE.

BURIAL PLACE: NO KNOWN GRAVE – ON TYNE COT MEMORIAL, BELGIUM. PANEL 70-72.