Service No: 42730
Died: 16/09/1916
Age: 18
Interred in AIF Burial Ground, Flers.
Remembered on family memorial in Bangor cemetery.
Eric Ilff was born in Cleadon, Co Durham in the later part of 1897. He was the son of Harold Iliff, a Land Agent, and his wife Edith Mary (nee Dodd). He was the second of their four children, his siblings being Muriel (c1896), Phyllis (c1900), and Constance (c1909).
He attended Bede Collegiate Boys' School in Sunderland, were he was a Durham County Council Junior Scholar, before being transferred to Ryhope Secondary School in 1911, when the County Council opened that school. The 1911 census recording that his father, Harold, had become a teacher of music by this time.
After school be became an apprentice engineer at the Scotia Engine Works in Sunderland.
He reverted to Private when posted to the Expeditionary Force on 16th July 1916 but was appointed Acting Corporal on 4th August 1916 when serving with the 10th Entrenching Battalion.
Eric was then posted to the 10th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry on 3rd September 1916 and allotted regimental number 42730 and reverted to private once again.
He was reported missing, later killed in action, on the 16th September 1916 when the 10th Battalion where involved in a major action east of Gueudecourt.
How and why his family moved to Bangor is unknown but his parents where still living in Cleadon in the late 20s.
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| AIF Burial Ground, Flers, France |
