Private Robert Ainger

Army Number: 201366 ( formerly 4129 2/5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment).

Battalion: 1/5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment.

Born at South Normanton, Derbyshire and lived at 89, Devonshire Arms Yard, South Normanton. Son of Isaiah and Mary Ainger, of East Lodge, Sherwood Lodge, Arnold, Nottinghamshire. He was a coal miner at Blackwell Colliery, Derbyshire. prior to enlisting at Alfreton, Derbyshire on 15th March 1915. He was transferred to the 1/5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment on 9th December 1915 and went to France on 10th December 1915. Killed in action, 1st July 1916, in the attack on the German positions at Gommecourt, France, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, France. Pier and Face 10C, 10D and 11A.

Private Ainger is also commemorated on the following local memorials:-
Arnot Hill Park War Memorial, Arnold, Nottinghamshire.
St. Mary’s Church War Memorial, Arnold, Nottinghamshire.
St. Paul’s Church War Memorial, Daybrook, Nottinghamshire.
Calverton War Memorial, Calverton, Nottinghamshire.
St. Wilfrid’s Church War Memorial, Calverton, Nottinghamshire.
Victoria Embankment War Memorial, Nottingham. 

His brother Private Joseph Ainger, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, also fell in the Great War.