LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS - WWI

Corporal Frederick Cobbold
2nd Bn East Surrey Regiment

Town Memorial P2.R2.C3.

Taken, Not Given

PTE
FREDERICK COBBOLD
2ND EAST SURREY REGT
HILL 60
APRIL 24 1915 [sic]

Frederick Cobbold of the 2nd. Battalion East Surreys and Lewis Long of the 1st Battalion both died in the defence of HILL 60 around St George’s Day 1915. The two Regular Battalions had been entrusted with the key to the Ypres defences. HILL 60 lies on the rising ground South of Zillebeke between the railway line to Comines and the Menin Road to Brussels and Courtrai.

Its seizure and retention were vital to British and Germans alike. At the end of the duel, the German still held the crest, but the British held the slopes and the German offensive was halted at that point. However, it was a very close run matter which cost both sides dearly in terms of dead and wounded.

In one way the defence of Ypres was dearer for the British than the Germans because it literally used up Britain's small but invaluable Regular Army.

According to the Queens records (1) Frederick Cobbold was actually a Corporal*. He had been born at Bradfield St George, Bury St. Edmunds and had enlisted at Kingston upon Thames. The records confirm that he was in the Second Battalion, but the May 1915 issue of the Parish Magazine (2) list him as being in the Third, which suggests the possibility that he was a Reservist.

The deaths of both Frederick Cobbold and Lewis Long were listed in the June 1915 issue of the Parish Magazine (5).

Though the battle for HILL 60 was savage, even by Western Front standards, and the East Surreys were to win three Victoria Crosses in one day, HILL 60 is only mentioned once in the War Diaries and no mention is made of exceptional courage on anyone’s part (3, 4).

The War Diary of the First Battalion ..

.. mentions HILL 60 as being the position which it held between 19th and 21st April when it was relieved by the Devons.
The two day spell in the trenches must have been bad, because it sustained the following casualties:-
Killed: Officers 7 - Other Ranks 42
Wounded: Officers 10 - Other Ranks 158
Missing (believed dead): Officers nil - Other Ranks 64
Total: Officers 17 - Other Ranks 264

281 officers and men all told had become casualties including their dead Colonel, whose body was brought out. They received congratulations from those on high, but only [received] four days rest in the rear.

Now let us turn to the Second Battalion's War Diary, their sojourn in in the trenches had actually begun on the day before the First's original tour of duty in the line, that is on the 18th.

According to the Diary  ..

.. the Battalion left at 6.30 p.m. to relieve the Middlesex Regiment in trenches near Zonnebeke.
Next day (19th) is described as “a quiet day". 
The day following (20th) the casualties were three dead and eight wounded, and it is noted “Bombardment of Ypres commenced".
The 21st was marked by one man being killed and four wounded.
The 22nd saw an intensification of the fighting. The Diary notes that “enemy reported massing“,“French right broken“ and “Trenches heavily shelled".
On the 23rd around midnight “the enemy made heavy attack on the centre of the Battalion." Losses one officer and seven ORs killed and 31 more ORs wounded. Nevertheless the Diary describes it as "A quiet day".

However the 24th showed what was to come.

At 4 a.m. “Trench mortars opened on our trenches and continued all day“ and “much damage“. The enemy was seen "vacating their trenches and putting boards across them".
The night was described as “very quiet” but the battalion had lost another officer and ten ORs killed and another 39 ORs wounded.

Amongst the dead was Frederick Cobbold. [the CWGC record gives his date of death as 25th April 1915 not the 24th, but just in case, let Liam continue his narrative]

Had he lived to see the 25th he may not have survived.

The War Diary takes up the story again:

“5 a.m. enemy opened fire with shrapnel, continued until 9 a.m., then heavy artillery". The artillery bombardment had a dual effect, because the Diary notes, “men affected by fumes of exploding shells and rendered unconscious". By noon 4 men had been killed and 18 wounded. An hour later, the Diary relates, “enemy attacked whole line held by the Battalion. They broke through Trench 23 and soon occupied a small trench in rear but were dislodged and eight captured". The Germans fell back, apparently in a precipitant manner, leaving an officer and 28 other ranks prisoners in the hands of the East Surreys. The Germans, however, succeeded in reoccupying part of Trench 24 (centre), but a company of the 8th. Middlesex drove them out at “bayonet point".

However Trench 25 (left) was also “pierced by strong force of the enemy who secured central portion of trench and resisted all efforts to turn them out".

Two companies of the Shropshire Light Infantry then tried but failed to dislodge the Germans from the bitterly contested Trench 25, central portion.

At this stage of the battle the British were firing over the parapet of their trenches and were thus exposed whilst the Germans were firing through loopholes, which their own men “were careful not to mask".

This part of the War Diary then sets out the casualties sustained by the Second Battalion in this episode. They were:

Killed: Officers 4 - ORs  82
Wounded: Officers 5 - ORs 109
Died of wounds: Officers nil - ORs 43
Total: Officers 9 - ORs 236
A total of 245 casualties.

Their eight day tenure of the Ypres trenches had cost the two battalions just over 500 casualties, or quarter of two full strength battalions which was, in all probability, simply not the case [that they were full strength].

Notes on sources
1. Regimental Records of the Queens, Clandon Park, Surrey.
2. Parish magazine of St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead May 1915 issue (courtesy of Mr L Anstee of the parish).
3. File W095–2279 – War Diary 2nd. Bn. East Surreys
4. File WO 95–1579 – War Diary 1st. Bn. East Surreys (Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond)
5. Parish magazine of St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead (June 1915 issue).

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Further research

Corporal
COBBOLD, FREDERICK
Service Number 1959
Died 25/04/1915
Aged 35
2nd Bn.
East Surrey Regiment
Son of Mr. and Mrs. William Cobbold, of Bradfield St. George, Bury St. Edmund's; husband of Mrs. G. J. Baldry (formerly Cobbold), of Oak Lane, Rougham, Bury St. Edmund's. Served in the South African Campaign.
Commemorated at YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Location: West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Cemetery/memorial reference: Panel 34.

Surrey Mirror
Friday 31 December 1915
ROLL OF HONOUR.
BRAVE SURREY MEN FALLEN IN THE WAR.
LEATHERHEAD AND DISTRICT.
... Pte. Fredk. Cobbold, of the 2nd East Surrey Regt., killed in action in France, April 24th.

* The WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920, for Frederick Cobbold show he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star.
Curiously his rank was listed as Acting Corporal, but appears to have been changed to Private.

His WW1 Pension record says he was a Corporal and that he died on 24 April 1915. His next of kin were Rosina Cobbold [wife] and  Lily Violet Cobbold [daughter]. His Effects card records that a payment was made to his widow, by now Mrs Rosina Baldry, on 1 October 1919.

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His life

So far, no indication has been found of his link to Leatherhead, where he appears on all possible war memorials here. The nearest connections are that he enlisted in Kingston-upon-Thames and his death was recorded in a local newspaper.

He was born about 1881 in the village of Bradfield St George near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where he was baptised at St George's Church on 17 January 1881.

His father was William Cobbold, born 1847 Bradfield St George, died in 1922, Ellesmere, Shropshire. He was described as an Agricultural Labourer.
His mother was Sarah Elizabeth née Gill, born 1843 Rougham, Suffolk, died 1917, Ellesmere, Shropshire.
Their marriage was registered in Q3 1871, in the Thingoe District, Suffolk.

In the 1881 Census baby Frederick's family were listed at Free Wood Street, Rougham. His siblings were Charles, Sarah, Elizabeth, William, and Alfred. Later they would be joined by Annie, Lillie and Arthur.

He married Rosina Cocksedge at her parish church, St Mary's, Rougham, Suffolk in 1905. There were four children - Barbara, Lily Violet, Kathleen and Gordon.

In the 1901 Census Frederick is described as a Market Gardener and he, Rosina and three months-old daughter Barbara were living at 22 Rougham Green, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

In the 1911 Census Frederick's family - Rosina and Lily Violet - were living at Kingshall Green, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Aged 30, 'Freddy' was described as a Farm Labourer. 

Frederick's CWGC record refers to service in South Africa. The Surrey in the Great War website notes that his brother Charles " .. died in 1900 during the South Africa Campaign [Modder River, Kimberley] and is the reference to that campaign shown on Frederick's Commonwealth War Graves Commission record." However, implausible as it may be that Frederick also served there (given that he appears in the 1901 Census), in the Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls there is an 4992/4998 F Cobbold, 1Bn Rifle Brigade listed on 14 November 1901 as entitled to the Clasp to the S Africa Medal.

As well as losing their sons Frederick and Charles in the service of their country, William and Sarah also lost William jr, almost immediately after Frederick, on 8 May 1915 (Pte William Cobbold, 1 Bn Suffolk Regiment, Ypres).
Just over a year later Arthur was killed on 19 August 1916 (CQMS Arthur Cobbold, 4 Bn Rifle Brigade).

In April 1919 Rosina remarried, to George J Baldry. She died in 1926.

On 10 November 2007 the East Anglian Daily Times reported a story Family tribute to the Cobbolds who fell: "Three generations of the Cobbold family will this weekend lay a wreath at the Cenotaph to remember 48 ancestors killed in wartime."
One of them was Corporal Frederick Cobbold, 35, East Surrey Regiment, April 25, 1915, Ypres, Belgium.

Frederick Cobbold is remembered on these memorials:
Leatherhead Church Lads Brigade tryptich, All Saints
Leatherhead RBL Roll of Honour, Leatherhead Parish Church
Leatherhead Town War Memorial
Ladies War Shrine, Leatherhead Parish Church
St George's Church, Bradfield St George, Suffolk 

the website editor would like to add further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of him, his headstone, and of any recollections of him

last updated 15 Jun 20