Name
John George Coote (MM)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/08/1918
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
325454
Cambridgeshire Regiment
1st/1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Military Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MEAULTE MILITARY CEMETERY
G.12
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial,
St. Peter’s Church Memorial, Mill End,
St. Peter's C & E Primary School Memorial, Mill End
Pre War
Born in 1885 in Rickmansworth John was the son of George and Rose (nee Osborne) Coote who, in 1891, were living the South Side of Mill End with John and his four siblings. George was a Blacksmith. In 1901 they were at Tanney Cottages, Uxbridge Road with George now a Railway Labourer and John, age 15, a Labourer in a Paper Mill. John married Emily Gertrude Kilbey in 1909 and their daughter Margaret was born In 1913. In 1911 John and Emily were living Uxbridge Road, Mill End with John now a Platelayer.
Emily did not remarry and on the 1939 Register is a Hop Picker at No 95 Cowden Farm, Tonbridge, Kent.
He is recorded as enlisting in Cambridge.
Wartime Service
On the 22nd of August 1918, the day John was killed in action, Fourth Army renewed its attack north of the Somme with the 1st Cambridgeshires and 7th Norfolks leading, supported by tanks. Zero hour was 4.45 am. Despite suffering from gas shelling while in their assembly positions, and strong opposition, particularly in the woods where the fighting was at its heaviest, their objective was reached by 6.30 am.
The overall action became known as the Battle of Albert, part of the Second Battle of the Somme.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Tanya Britton, Mike Collins
