Munby E J 2nd Lt Royal Engineers
SECOND LIEUTENANT E. J. MUNBY
EAST ANGLIAN FIELD COMPANY, ROYAL ENGINEERS, T.F.
ERNEST JOHN MUNBY was the second son of the Rev. G. F. W. Munby (O.R., 1846), Rector of Turvey, Bedfordshire.
He entered the School in 1888, and after leaving went to America, where he took his degree as a Mechanical Engineer. He worked as a Mining Engineer in Colorado and Borneo, and on the tunnels under the Hudson River at New York.
He obtained a Commission in the Royal Engineers, in October, 1914, went to the Front at Christmas, was killed on January 31st, near Bethune, and was buried in the cemetery of Le Touret. His section was working at night. They had finished work, and had gone into an old farm building, when a bullet crashed through the wall and caused his instantaneous death. Age 40.
One who knew him in civilian life wrote:- “The thing that struck me most was the fact that whenever there was work involving much danger, he always took the dangerous place, rather than allow the men to take it, and this seems to have been the keynote of his life, self-sacrifice for the good of others.”
Another wrote “He always had the truest spirit of self-sacrifice, and his death seemed a fitting end to a life that was always full of courage and enthusiasm.”
He married in 1905 Emily Louisa Ann, widow of Captain Herbert Turner Turner-Emery, R.A., of Baddow Park, Essex, only daughter of Charles Henry Coxhead.
Source : Memorials Of Rugbeians Who Fell In The Great War Vol 1
Munby E J 2nd Lt Royal Engineers
Source : The Illustrated London News 13th Feb 1915
MUNBY, ERNEST JOHN, 2nd Lieut., 1st East Anglian Field Coy., R.E. (T.F.), 2nd s. of the late Rev. George Frederick Woodhouse Munby, Rector of Turvey, Bedford (1869-1905), by his wife, Harriet Louisa, dau, of the Rev. Canon Linton; b. Turvey Rectory, 19 May, 1875; educ. Rugby and Stevens Institute, Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.A., where he took his degree as Mechanical Engineer, and became M.Am. S.M.E. and A.I.M. and M. As a Mining Engineer, he worked in Colorado and Borneo, and was subsequently engaged with Lord Cowdray (then Sir Weetman Pearson) in constructing the tunnel under the Hudson River to New York. He was afterwards employed by the Gardner Electric Drill and Hammer Company, and had latterly been engaged at the St. John’s Mine, Montezuma, Colorado. On the outbreak of war he returned to England and applied for a commission. He was gazetted 2nd Lieut. to the 1st East Anglian Coy., R.E., 14 Sept. 1914; went to France at the end of Dec., and was killed in action near Bethune, 31 Jan. 1915, being buried at Le Touret. He m. at Croydon, 7 Nov. 1905, Emily Louisa Ann, widow of Capt. Herbert Turner Turner Emery, of Baddow Park, Essex, and dau. of Charles Henry Coxhead; s.p.
Source : De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour Vol 1