Eric Stanley Shinkfield
Eric Stanley Shinkfield
Lance Corporal, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Eric Stanley Shinkfield lived at 23 Trossachs Road, East Dulwich and attended Alleyn’s with his brothers, Leonard and Herbert, until 1913. After the outbreak of the First World War, Herbert, Leonard and Eric all decided to enlist in the war effort and they each joined the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) as Privates.
From Pte. E. Shinkfield
We are getting very hot weather now and find it rather trying. On March 14th we left Pembroke Camp, where we had been under canvas, and did a fortnight’s guard over the crew of the Emden, who are imprisoned on the other side of the Grand Harbour.
Malta has been made a hospital base for those wounded in the Dardanelles, and they are arriving very fast indeed. We have been turned out of our barracks, which have been turned into quite a decent hospital, and are now camping out on the parade ground
During his time with the London Regiment, Eric saw action on the Eastern and Western Front and served as a Lance Corporal. In 1915, he was part of the forces responsible for guarding the crew of SMS Emden, a defeated German light cruiser, which gave him time to write home to his family about his wartime experience. An extract of one of these letters was published in the Edward Alleyn Magazine in July 1915, which can be read in the box to the right.
After the close of the Dardanelles Operations, Eric was sent for service in France with the Fusiliers near Hebuterne in preparation for the Somme Offensive. Unfortunately, it was during this time that he was killed in action on May 29th 1916. His brother continued to serve with the Fusiliers until falling in battle on the Somme just over a month later. Eric is buried at Hebuterne Military Cemtery.