Forename: Ernest William George
Surname: Rivers
Rank: Private
Regiment: Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Institution: St Paul’s Practising School
Ernest William George Rivers was born in Prestbury in 1891 to Charles and Selina Rivers, later of 1 Regent Place, Swindon Road.
Prior to the war he was a Private in the 1st Battalion Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry where he was serving in India. He was then sent to Mesopotamia to protect the Anglo-Iranian oil fields at Basra. Allied forces pushed towards Baghdad with the aim of taking the city but were pushed back by the Turks and put under siege at Kut-al-Amara. Kut was captured and Ernest was one of the many soldiers flogged through the desert being taken to Turkey as a prisoner of war. He died 31 May 1916, age 26. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial.