17/06/2026
Today we rededicated the grave of Private Ernest James Grendall at Commonwealth War Graves Commission Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany.
Ernest was born in Gloucestershire to William Grendall and Lilian May Best. He was one of nine children, growing up in Coney Hill, Gloucester. His father worked in the local Wagon Works, whilst Ernest worked as a Milkman.
Ernest joined the British Army on 16 October 1939. He was subsequently posted to the 4th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment and was sent to join the British Expeditionary Force in March 1940. They were operating as a Divisional Machine Gun battalion in France and Belgium and were heavily involved in rear-guard actions during the retreat to Dunkirk. Ernest was captured by the Germans on 30 May 1940 and taken to Stalag Camp XXB on the outskirts of Marienburg, now Malbork, Poland.
Ernest spent the next five years as a Prisoner of War. On 24 January 1945, the Germans forced their prisoners to evacuate the camp and travel westward, away from the rapidly approaching Russian army. For most prisoners, it was the ordeal of the so-called Long March of the winter of 1945 that came to be the most harrowing experience of the whole captivity period.
The march was a poorly organised operation, which forced malnourished and sick men to walk beyond their endurance in temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius. Ernest and his fellow comrades were marched over 800 kilometres, through a series of villages, until they arrived in Moraas, Germany. They were due to stay here for a week, sleeping in barns with little protection from the freezing cold.
It was in this village that Ernest tragically succumbed to hunger, disease and neglect. His comrades did their best to give him a proper burial in the local cemetery and Company Sergeant Major James Fulton, the Chief British Man of Confidence in Stalag XXB, made a note of Ernest’s death in his diary. Sadly, he was subsequently listed as missing, and his grave was never found.
Research by a member of the public prompted an investigation into an unknown soldier’s grave in Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany. The information behind this grave showed that this casualty was concentrated from Moraas Cemetery, Mecklenburg shortly after the war. This location suggested the casualty was a prisoner of war who died following the northern route during the Long March, which took them through the area in March 1945. Further information gathered from the National Archives showed many eyewitness accounts further confirming that Ernest was the only British casualty buried in Moraas. Therefore, his headstone has been changed accordingly, and today his memory has been honoured.
Girvan and District Great War
