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WEST, Ernest Gordon
1920 - 2005 (84 years) Has 34 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
1874 - 1961 (86 years)-
Name WEST, Ernest Gordon Birth 15 Nov 1920 Gender Male Death 21 Oct 2005 Person ID I7748 Edgoose Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
Father WEST, William, b. 29 Apr 1867, Leicester, Leicestershire 
d. 1940, Leicester Registration District, Leicestershire (Age 72 years) Relationship natural Mother HOLLINGWORTH, Rachel Mary Maud, b. 16 Dec 1874, Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, England d. 1961, Leicester Registration District, Leicestershire (Age 86 years) Relationship natural Marriage 1897 Leicester Registration Distict, Leicestershire Family ID F825 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family PLOSKA, Zofia, b. 12 Dec 1924, Poland d. 1975 (Age 50 years) Family ID F2797 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
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Notes
ERNEST GORDON WEST 1920-2005
The birth of Ernest G. WEST was registered in 1920. According to the 1939 Register, he was born on 15 November 1920.
(GRO December Q 1920 [HOLLINGWORTH] Leicester 7a 469.
Halina WEST wrote in 2014 that her father Ernest Gordon WEST rarely talked about his ancestors. He was the youngest of 6 children and was born more than 20 years after his eldest sibling William, when his father was about 50 and his mother in her late 40s. He had bitter memories of a deeply unhappy childhood, mainly because of his extremely stern and rigid Victorian father. His father William WEST was a Methodist lay preacher and on Sundays the family had to troop off to church. The children went to Sunday school and only religious literature was allowed on that day. He never had a good relationship with his father, who firmly believed that children should be seen and never heard, and if you spoke out of turn you were severely punished. He hated the name Ernest and nobody ever called him by his first name. He was known to the world as Gordon even though he signed himself E. G. WEST. Gordon adored his mother, Rachel, and he felt that his father mistreated her. He never really spoke much about his family, but he did say that his eldest brother William was killed in the First World War.
When she was a child and until she was in my early 20s they used to go andvisit the family in Leicester.
This was mainly because her mother insisted. She said that family is mportant and you should never forget your roots or where you came from. In the 60s and 70s her aunt Essie (Ethel) and her brother Frank still lived in St. Saviour's Road in Leicester, where the family had been for generations.
(Emails from Halina WEST 2014 and 2015)
From the 1939 Register of 2 Beckingham Road, Leicester C.B., Leicestershire:
William WEST, born 29 April 1867, leather salesman retired, married;
Rachel (Mary) WEST, born 16 December 1874, unpaid domestic duties, married;
Frank Winfrey WEST, born 1 December 1900, confectioner, cake maker, single;
Lawrence Jesse WEST, born 24 November 1911, salesman greengrocery, single;
*Ernest Gordon WEST, born 15 November 1920, confectionary (retired) motor driver, single.
(RG101/6020A/020/36 RESD)
He met his future wife Zofia PLOSKA at Agricultural College in Monmouthshire in 1946 and they married in London in 1948. Zofia was a Polish refugee who had come over to England with her family after the war to escape from the communist regime.
The marriage between an Ernest C. WEST and Zofia PLOSKA was registered in 1948.
(GRO December Q 1948 Ealing 5e 476)
(This a mistranscription for Ernest G. WEST)
The birth of an Anthony WEST, mother's maiden name PLOSKA, was registered in 1950.
(GRO December Q 1950 [PLOSKA] Carlisle 1a 81)
His wife Zophia was killed in a car accident in 1975 at the age of 50.
According to his daughter Halina WEST he died on 21 October 2005.
NOTES & QUERIES:
See Jesse WEST (1863-1936) for a description of the character of Ernest Gordon WEST's uncle, the first headmaster of Wolverhampton Higher Grade School.
(revised 29.09.2017)