Remembering the fallen: Ernest Gerrie
Ernest Henry Gerrie was born on Dec. 30, 1923 in Erin Township to David Henry and Annie Winifred (nee Sanderson) Gerrie.
He was the youngest son of their six children. Sometime after his birth, his family moved to Rockwood.
After graduating from Grade 8 from Eramosa S.S.#9 in Rockwood, he worked as a farm labourer before moving to Hamilton to work as a machinist’s helper at the Westinghouse plant.
On May 1, 1943, he enrolled in the Army under the National Resource Mobilization Act.
He enlisted into the 26th Anti-Aircraft Battery in Newfoundland from Nov. 20, 1943 to May 1944, at which time he volunteered for overseas service.
By October, he was a radar operator at Barriefield Camp, near Kingston.
On Nov. 25, he left Canada by ship and arrived in England five days later, where he was transferred into the Canadian Infantry Corps as a member of the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment as a gunner.
After six weeks he was flown to the Belgian Front, joining his brother Hugh, who was serving in the Provost Corps.
Gerrie was killed in action on April 4, 1945, at the beginning of the Battle of Zutphen and Deventer, in northeast Netherlands.
