Ernest Seaman
English soldier (1893–1918); recipient of the Victoria Cross
Ernest Seaman VC, MM (16 August 1893 – 29 September 1918) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A soldier with The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, he was posthumously awarded the VC for his actions on 29 September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive of the First World War.
Early life
Ernest Seaman was born on 16 August 1893, in the village of Heigham, near Norwich, to Henry and Sarah Seaman, who already had a daughter. His father died while Seaman was still a child but his mother was later remarried, to a publican. The family ran an inn near Scole. Educated at Scole Primary School, on finishing his schooling Seaman moved to Trimley to live with an aunt and work as a page boy in the Grand Hotel in Felixstowe. Emigrated to Canada in 1912.
First World War
On the outbreak of the First World War, Seaman returned to the United Kingdom and tried to enlist in the British Army. He was initially rejected, but he subsequently enlisted at Le Havre. However, he was classified as unfit for active frontline service and was posted to the catering division of the Army Service Corps in late 1915.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5393785. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1918, 1912 and 1915.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ernest Seaman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.