Ernest George Willmore: College Diaries

Ernest came up to St John's from Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, in 1912 with a scholarship to read Natural Sciences. During the Easter vacation of his second year, Ernest met Jess, a twenty-one-year-old drapery assistant, at a Good Friday picnic.

As Ernest records in his diary for Monday 20 April 1914, he fell for Jess at first sight. ‘I am sure’, Ernest wrote, ‘that a purer & better girl does not exist’, admitting to being smitten by her delightful nut-brown hair, intellectual ideals, and experience of the world.

When Ernest returned to Oxford for his Mods in Trinity Term, they began a devoted epistolary courtship, interspersed with a number of romantic walks in the hills around Albury.

Throughout their courtship, Ernest repeatedly wrote of waiting longingly for Jess's letters only to burst into ecstatic joy at their arrival at college. For instance, on Wednesday 13 May 1914 he wrote, 'Jess's letter came punctually. I was in raptures. I love her more & more all the time. This letter was longer & more delightful than ever. I do wish I could see her. The end of term is still a terribly long way off'.

After going ring shopping on Oxford Street the following spring – eventually deciding on ‘one with a rather large stone’ for £9.15.0! – Ernest and Jess married on 13 November 1915.

In the same year, Ernest enlisted for service in WW1, joining the Royal Garrison Artillery as an officer. After two years of service, Ernest was awarded the Military Cross in June 1917 for ‘an act of exemplary gallantry’, details of which are unfortunately lost.

Sadly, Ernest was later repatriated to England with a severe head injury that left him partially paralysed. He was issued with a Silver Badge and returned home to Berkhamsted in 1918. Ernest and Jess welcomed a daughter, Jean Margaret Willmore, a year later, but Ernest’s ill health continued.

Tragically, Ernest died on 31 July 1920, aged only 26, following an operation on his brain. Retiring to Cromer, Norfolk, after her husband’s death, Jess never remarried.

The college acquired Ernest’s diaries from a Salvation Army charity shop in Sheringham, Norfolk, in 2005. As reported by Professor Malcolm Vale, then Fellow Keeper of the Archives, a box of materials relating to Ernest's time at St John's had been left on the doorstep of the charity shop and the manager was kind enough to ring up and enquire as to whether the college would like to take it. As Professor Vale says, 'it is heartening to know that people out there consider us to be worthy custodians of such items. May it long continue thus!'

In recent months, college Archivist Michael Riordan has been busy transcribing Ernest’s diaries for future publication, preserving the story of Ernest and Jess’s romance for future generations.

Many thanks to Michael and Apprentice Archivist, Victoria Beningfield, for supporting the researching and writing of this report.