Ernest Richard Avis
Ernest Richard Avis was not born in Stoneleigh but in Reading, in 1892. His father George was a musician in an orchestra and seems to have moved about with his profession. In 1901 Ernest, his mother Mary and four younger siblings were living at 10, Paddington Place, Leamington, which was the address his father gave in Spennells Directory. In 1911 father George was absent from home but the whole family lived in Stoneleigh, and had evidently been there for a couple of years, since Avis children were admitted to Stoneleigh School in 1910, having previously been at Clapham Terrace School in Leamington.
In that year, 1911, Ernest was working as an assistant gardener (domestic) -probably at the abbey. Later he was employed by Rover in Coventry, but enlisted on August 4th 1915 in Warwick in the 2nd Bn Gloucestershire Regiment, service number 22000. He later became a Lance Corporal. The 2nd Battalion moved to Salonika in late November 1915 and it was whilst serving there that he was killed on December 7th 1916, probably at the Battle of Tumbitza Farm. He was 24, and is commemorated on the Doiran Memorial in Macedonia. He is also commemorated on the Leamington Spa War Memorial and that of All Saints Church, Leamington.