Ernest Grey Sandford was born in Dunchurch, Warwickshire in the September Quarter of 1839. He married Ethel Maria Poole in Somerset in the March Quarter of 1875. By that time he was Vicar of Landkey, a small parish some four miles to the south east of Barnstaple.

The first six of their children were born in Landkey. Two more children were born in Cornwood before Ernest's appointment, first as Canon and Preceptor then , in 1888, Archdeacon of Exeter - an appointment held by him until 1909.  The family moved to Exeter to live in the Cathedral Yard, in the shadow of the Cathedral and this is where the youngest child was born in 1891.

Ernest Sandford had  been educated at Rugby School under the headmastership of Frederick Temple who became Bishop of Exeter before his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury. After ordination, Sandford was, for a while, Dr. Temple's domestic chaplain and became his lifelong friend and admirer. In 1906, he edited and published the Archbishop's Memoirs and the following year wrote An Appreciation of Frederick Temple. 

Courtesy of Devon County Council

Ernest Sandford died 8 March 1910 and is commemorated by a plaque in Exeter Cathedral. After her husband's death, Ethel Sandford went to live in Exmouth. Two of their sons are also commemorated on a brass plate in the south aisle of the Cathedral - Captain Francis Hugh Sandford DSO RN (ob 1926) 'Croix de Guerre avec Palmes and Lt. Richard Douglas Sandford VC RN (ob 1918) 'Legion of Honour.'

This was a family with several distinguished members:

TEMPLE CHARLES GREY

Temple (named after Ernest Sandford's hero Dr. Frederick Temple) became a master at Marlborough School where  he remained throughout the first war, putting hours of his spare time into emergency war work.

ERNEST JOHN

Ernest Jnr. took Holy Orders. He went to France in the Great War as a chaplain to the forces.

Known as "Betty" in the family, this daughter went out to France during the Great War to work in French hospitals in France and at Tenedos and for the British Government at Mudros.

He resigned a mastership at Harrow in 1906 to enter the Civil Service. For three or four years he was in charge of Omdurman and was described as "one of the best and most capable  of officials". He died in the civil hospital in Khartum in 1916.

Daniel won the DSO and the Croix de Chevalier of the Legion of Honour for his services in France.

Tom Sandford became a Native Commisioner in Northern Rhodesia and helped the war effort by getting supplies into German East Africa for British troops fighting there.

Lt. Commander Frank Sandford won the French Croix de Guerre with palm, followed by the DSO for bravery in connection with dealing with mines. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel and lost an eye during the war. He died in 1926.

b 1891 June Quarter in Exeter.

Educated at Clifton College and the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Won the Victoria Cross for his deed at Zeebrugge. Died in Yorkshire in 1918 of typhoid fever.