Elijah Arthur Embling was born in Leicester in 1894.   His parents were Matthew Embling (born Goderstone, Norfolk) and Maria (nee Tinkler, from Burton Lazars).  As well as Leicester they’d also lived in Melton Mowbray and Lobthorpe (North Witham).

By 1901 the family were in Elsthorpe (between Bourne and Corby Glen) where Matthew was a horseman on a farm.  Elijah was 7 and had an older brother and 2 sisters.

Matthew died in 1905, aged 47, probably in Barkston.   The following year his widow married George William Dolby, a waggoner from Barkston (Joseph Dolby’s younger brother).  

They went on to have at least 3 more children.  Around 1908 the family moved to Burton Gorse (SE of Sleaford).  By 1914 most of the family seem to have been in Haceby (apart from Elijah’s brother Frederick Embling who was in West Willoughby) but in 1915 they were in Stainby.

Elijah joined the Lincolnshire Regiment at Lincoln in Jan 1912.  At the time he was a farm labourer at Haceby.  After training in Lincolnshire he joined 1^st battalion in Portsmouth.   At the outbreak of the Great War the battalion joined the BEF and landed at Le Havre on 14^th August.  Elijah was killed in action on 24^th August (aged 20) during the retreat immediately after the Battle of Mons.  His body was never identified but his name is recorded on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, as well as the Barkston War Memorial.