Ernest Vaux

He was educated at the Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen and joined the part-time Durham Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers).

He was appointed Machine Gun Commander, with the temporary rank of Lieutenant in the Army from 3 February 1900,[2] the day after he left Liverpool for South Africa on the SS Monteagle.

He was mentioned in despatches 7 times, received the Queen's South Africa Medal with four clasps, and was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in November 1901.

The 7th DLI fought in many of the bloodiest battles of the Great War on the Western Front, and his long tenure of command was highly unusual for a pre-war Territorial officer.

The Fusiliers and Durhams repulsed the initial attack, but a neighbouring unit was driven back and the battalions' left flank was open.

They were pushed back to the third line, just behind Railway Wood, before reinforcements (including C and D Companies of 7th DLI) arrived to help halt the enemy advance.

[10][11] After the war, Captain Wade, who had served as a private in the battalion, painted the men standing up to avoid the gas at Bellewaarde and singing their hymn.

When I assembled the men for roll call at tea time (17.00) the count attested to the loss of 700 of my command" of which Vaux himself was one of only 3 surviving Officers.

Although pioneers were still fighting infantry battalions, they received extra equipment (and pay) and were tasked with assisting the divisional Royal Engineers in constructing trenches and strongpoints, road-making etc.

Vaux was instrumental in the battalion being chosen for this role, arguing that the various trades of the Sunderland shipbuilders among its ranks made it ideally suited.

In the early 1900s he started taking the sons of his brewery works and other Sunderland boys on camping weekends, to show them the countryside and awaken in them a love of nature.

Medical help could not be received quickly enough, and his health was so severely affected that he was moved to a nursing home on Windsor Crescent, Newcastle-upon-Tyne for treatment.

He died there in 1925, at the age of sixty, and is buried in St Cuthbert's churchyard in Barton, North Yorkshire, near his home, Brettanby Manor.