. Private Ernest Ashley Todd from Coutts Island was killed in action on 6 April 1918. His older brother Oliver had been killed in June 1917. Ernest enlisted in November 1916 and after training arrived in France in September 1917. Within a week of his arrival, he had contracted measles and had to be evacuated to Étaples and Boulogne for recuperate. On his return to the 1st Battalion of the Canterbury Regiment after Passchendaele, he had a relapse of the measles which meant he missed the battle at Polderhoek Chateau. He sprained his ankle on patrol on January 1918, and then like many others was sent on leave to the United Kingdom. This leave was cut short two days later when he was recalled to help his unit stem the German Offensive and he was killed in action on 6 April 1918 near Le Signy farm. He is buried at the Knightsbridge Cemetery at Mesnil-Martinsart in the Somme in France and commemorated with Oliver on the Coutt's Island War Memorial. (see below)
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