Name
Hector Arthur Coleman
1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/10/1917
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
44017
Suffolk Regiment
9th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS BRITISH CEMETERY
XX. E. 27.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Kimpton Village Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church, Kimpton
Pre War
Hector Arthur Coleman was born in 1896 in Kimpton, nr Welwyn, Herts, the son of Arthur and Kezia Coleman.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Kimpton Street, Kimpton, where his father was working as a carpenter. His father died on 20 October 1905, aged 49, and on the 1911 Census Hector was living with his widowed mother, brother Percy and sister Ruth at Vale Cottage, Kimpton and was working as a house boy for a builder. He later worked as a carpenter for Messrs. Goldhawk.
Wartime Service
Hector enlisted in Hitchin, Herts and initially joined the Sherwood Foresters as Private 5791, later serving with the 9th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. After just over thirteen months in France Hector was killed in action on the Western Front. The Hertfordshire Express reported on 10 November 1917:
"We have to report with deep regret the death in action of Private Hector Coleman, Suffolk Regiment, of Kimpton, which took place on the Western Front on October 19.
Private Coleman was extremely popular with everyone, being formerly assistant Scoutmaster, a member of the Parish Church choir, and a Sunday-school teacher. The deepest sympathy is extended by the whole village to his widowed mother in her great sorrow. The news was made known in an official notification received by Mrs. Coleman on Monday afternoon. Before joining up Private Coleman was employed as a carpenter by Messrs. Goldhawk. His only brother is serving in Mesopotamia. His death brings the list to sixteen from Kimpton who have paid the great price in this war.
Mrs. Coleman received the following letter on Tuesday from 2nd-Lieutenant J. A. Simmons: "Your son was killed instantaneously by a mortar shell while on duty in the first line trench. As his platoon officer I can assure you that he was one of my best men, and one I could really depend on. He was beloved by all his comrades, and we feel his loss very much."
Private Coleman was 21 years of age, and had been in France just over thirteen months."
A subsequent article on the 8th of December reports on his memorial service:
"On Friday week, at the Kimpton Church, a memorial service was held in connection with the late Private Hector Coleman, Suffolk Regiment, who was killed in action on the Western Front in October. There was present a large congregation of relatives and parishioners. An impressive service, which commenced with the hymn, "The strife is o'er", was conducted by the Vicar, the Rev. A. T. Whyte-Venables. The burial service was read, and psalm xxxix sung. A special lesson was read by the Rev. G. H. C. Shorting, vicar of Stopsley. Mr Shorting also gave an address on the words, "Casting all your care on Him, for He careth for you." At the conclusion of his address, Mr. Shorting paid an eloquent tribute to Hector Coleman, who had been for eight years a member of the Church choir and also a Sunday-school teacher for the greater part of the time. Mr. Shorting was vicar of Kimpton. He said: "I never knew him to do an unkind word, and one could always hold him up as a pattern to other boys. He was, like his Master, working at the carpenter's bench during the week, and spending his Sundays in the service of God. He was not afraid to go 'over the top' and enter the portals of death, and now his vision fades, and so we take our leave of him, but he still lives in our affections, and the veil which parts us. The service concluded with the singing of the hymn, "Peace, perfect peace". Mr H. Batchelor, who was at the organ, as the congregation assembled played, "The Lord is mindful of His own" (Mendelssohn) and after the service, the "Dead March".
Mrs Coleman, who has heard that her son was buried in one of our own cemeteries, has received many expressions of sympathy, for which she is very grateful."
Hector was killed in action on 10 October 1917 and is buried in Loos British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother received a a war gratuity of £7 and pay owing of £7 13s 2d. She also received a pension of five shillings a week, later increased to 7s 6d a week from January 1919.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts,
