Ernest George Pepler – South Wales Borderers / Royal Defence Corps

Private Ernest George Pepler – South Wales Borderers / Royal Defence Corps

Early Life and Family Background

Ernest George Pepler was born in 1880 in Corsham, Wiltshire, the son of George Pepler and Harriet Herbert, who had married in 1875 at Pontypool, Monmouthshire.

1881 Census

The 1881 Census records the family living at Westwells, Chippenham, where George, aged thirty and Wiltshire‑born, worked as a farmer, while Harriet, aged twenty‑eight and born in Monmouthshire, managed the home. Their children present were Eliza J., four; Samuel, three; Ernest, one; and Mabel, four months old.

1891 Census – Move to Monmouthshire

1891 Census

By 1891, the Pepler family had moved to 226 Upper Orchard, Panteg, Monmouthshire. George, now thirty‑nine, was working as a coal miner, and his wife—recorded as Sarah, aged thirty‑two—kept the household. Their children present were Eliza J., fourteen; Samuel, twelve; Ernest, eleven; and Minnie, eight, all attending school.

1901 Census – Young Miner

1901 Census

The 1901 Census places the family at 2 George’s Houses, Panteg, where George, aged forty‑nine, continued working as a coal miner hewer. His wife Sarah, aged forty‑three, remained at home. Their two adult sons, Samuel, twenty‑three, and Ernest, twenty‑one, were both employed as coal miner hewers, following their father into the pits.

Marriage and 1911 Census

In 1908, Ernest married Elizabeth Ann Powell in Swansea. Elizabeth had previously been married to David Clement.

1911 Census

The 1911 Census records Ernest and his family living at 6 Harold Street, Tirydail, Ammanford, where Ernest, aged thirty‑one, worked as a coal miner (hewer). Elizabeth Ann, aged thirty‑two, managed the home. Their children present were Harriet Mary, eleven (Ernest’s stepdaughter), who attended school, and Doris May, aged two.

Also lodging with the family were James Powell, thirty‑five; and Roderick Robert Andrew Gilchrist Macdonald Macdougall, thirty‑nine, together with his wife Elizabeth Macdonald Macdougall, thirty‑three—an unusually diverse household for the mining communities of Carmarthenshire.

Military Service – South Wales Borderers / Royal Defence Corps

Ernest enlisted as a Private in the South Wales Borderers, 5th Battalion, before later being transferred to the Royal Defence Corps, serving with 331st Protection Company. The RDC was responsible for guarding vulnerable sites, prisoners of war, and key military installations across Britain during the First World War.

Ernest George Pepler
Tabor Calvinistic Methodist Burial Ground, Llansamlet credit - findagrave

Death and Burial, July 1918

Ernest George Pepler died on 15 July 1918, during the final months of the war. He was laid to rest at Tabor Calvinistic Methodist Burial Ground, Llansamlet, where his grave remains one of the parish’s earliest First World War burials.