Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Frederick and Jane Jeffs. He was employed at the Corby Ironstone Works before enlistment, he embarked for France on the 26th July 1915 and was killed at Mametz Wood. An officer has described how he used to gaze from afar upon the immense bulk, the vast denseness and darkness of Mametz Wood, and wonder, knowing the manifold dangers which lurked beneath its shadows, whether it was within human power to take it. It was a terrible task, and it was done, but one out of every three men who did it found the grave or the hospital before the survivors saw the light shine between the further tree trunks. Never has the quiet, steadfast courage of the British soldier been put to a more searching test than in those haunts of gloom and horror. As a boy and man Ernest had been a member of the Church Choir, his father being Parish Clerk. The War Diary entry for the 11th July 1916 records. QUADRANGLE TRENCH. Heavy shelling all day but no infantry attack.