Name
George Edward Coxhill
1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/04/1920
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
39994
Royal Army Medical Corps
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ABBOTS LANGLEY (ST. LAWRENCE) CHURCHYARD
451. (N.E. Plot).
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
JESU GRANT THAT WE MAY MEET THERE ADORING AT THY FEET
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Abbots Langley Village Memorial, Not on the Berkhamsted memorials, Not on the Boxmoor memorials
Pre War
Wartime Service
Biography
George Coxhill was discharged wounded in April 1918, and died some two years later at home, sixteen months after the War had ended.
obert was discharged, wounded in April 1916 and died of wounds in September 1917. George was recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine as “Discharged Wounded” in April 1918, and subsequently died at home.
George was born in the Spring of 1886 at Berkhamsted the son of Charles and Ruth Coxhill and baptised on 23 June 1886 in Great Berkhamsted. Charles was a Railway Plate Layer. George was one of eleven children born to Charles and Ruth - six daughters and five sons. The family lived at Canal Side, Berkhamsted at the time of the 1891 Census.
George was educated at Boxmoor School where he completed five of the seven school 'Standards' before leaving on 25 February 1898 to start work as an Errand Boy.
By 1901 they had moved to 52 St John’s Road, Hemel Hempstead. At that point George worked as a Groom Domestic.
George was a regular player with his local football team, Boxmoor before being a player of the Apsley Football Club, during the 1904/5 season. This team continued to become Hemel Hempstead Football Club.
He met Lilian Lucy Lloyd who was a nurse at Leavesden and they married in 1910 in Hemel Hempstead. A year later their first child Minnie Madeline was born, followed by son John Edward in 1919. On the 1911 Census they were living at 19 Asylum Cottages, Leavesden, Abbots Langley, Herts, when he was working as an asylum attendant with his brother, Robert.
George and Lilian later lived in Marlin Square, Abbots Langley.
In 1910 George was married, and by the time of the 1911 Census the couple lived at 19 Asylum Cottages in Abbots Langley and worked, as an Asylum Attendant. His first and only son was born on 20th August 1919, just over a year before George passed away.
George’s war service started when he had enlisted in Watford on 23 September 1914 (the same day as his brother Robert). Both men were listed in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour from October 1914, and appeared in the records each month through to the end of the War. R
He enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps. By the time he joined up he had qualified as a "Nurse" and was posted to the 77th Field Ambulance for basic training near Salisbury Plain. He served in France from 27 September 1915.
He saw action at Vimy Ridge and the Somme but in April 1917 he began to suffer from a persistent cough and general weakness which was initially thought to be bronchitis. His symptoms worsened and he was admitted to hospital in France on 11 December and evacuated to England on 20 December, being taken to Bermondsey Military Hospital on his return.
He was diagnosed with tuberculosis directly attributable to his war service and although he improved a little, his health did not recover enough to return to duty and he was honourably discharged on 25 March 1918 due to sickness and being no longer physically fit for war service. He was awarded Silver War Badge No. 370448.
He returned to his wife and daughter at Leavesden but he continued to have respiratory problems and eventually died at home of pulmonary tuberculosis and heart failure on 20 April 1920, age 34. He is buried in the St Lawrence Churchyard, Abbots Langley, Herts.
Additional Information
His widow, Mrs L Coxhill, 72 Marlin Square, Abbots Langley, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "JESU GRANT THAT WE MAY MEET THERE ADORING AT THY FEET". Brother to Robert William Coxhill, also served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, who died of pulmonary tuberculosis (and gas poisoning) on 26 September 1917 and is also named on the Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial. His younger brother James served with the RAMC and survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org, www.dacorumheritage,org,uk, www.hemelatwar.org.
