Private Coward is buried in the Honourable Artillery
Company (HAC) Cemetery at Ecoust St Mein, in the Pas de Calais, grave
reference V.K.21.
He was the "son of Agnes Brockett Coward of 1 Pembury Grove, Lower
Clapton, London and of the late Samson Coward, native of Renfrewshire"
(that is, Pte Coward was a native of Renfrewshire).
He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal
and (posthumously) the 1914 Star Medal:
"Francis’s war medal roll
shows he had seen active service overseas between 15 September 1914
and 19 January 1915 and between 3 November 1917 and the date of his
death in action in August 1918. He was the bugler of the l/14th County
of London Battalion (London Scottish). These service dates suggest
that he had been wounded or taken ill between the end of January 1915
and November 1917.
Francis was posthumously
awarded the 1914 Star Medal when it was established in 1917. Also
known as ‘Pip’ or the Mons Star, this bronze medal was authorized by
King George V in April 1917 for those who had served in France or
Belgium during 5 August 1914 to midnight on 22 November 1914
inclusive. The award was open to officers and men of the British and
Indian Expeditionary Forces, doctors and nurses as well as Royal Navy,
Royal Marines, Royal Navy Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
who served ashore with the Royal Naval Division in France or Belgium.
A narrow horizontal bronze clasp sewn onto the ribbon, bearing the
dates ‘5th AUG. - 22nd NOV. 1914’ shows that the recipient had
actually served under fire by the enemy during that period. For every
seven medals issued without a clasp there were approximately five
issued with the clasp.
Initially Francis’s war
medals were issued without the clasp but on 20 June 1920 Agnes applied
for her son’s medals to be issued with a clasp and the application was
accepted and posted to her address, now 1 Pembury Grove, Lower
Clapton, London." (Leatherhead in the Great War, Lorraine
Spindler (Pen & Sword, 2016)
But what was his connection with Leatherhead?
- Private Coward was not mentioned on any
of the other memorials in Leatherhead.
- On the Parish Church memorial he was
not listed among those who served.
- His mother's address was not Leatherhead.
So what was his marker doing in
Leatherhead's parish church tower? That was the
mystery.
Frank was able to inspect and photograph the
cross. There was no note attached at the back to
explain why it was in the Tower.
The foot of the cross was discoloured,
presumably from the soil of the grave. These wooden
crosses were used as temporary markers until the Imperial
War Graves Commission provided the now familiar
headstones in the post-WW1 cemetery program.
Ecoust St Mein is a village between Arras,
Cambrai and Bapaume - the Honourable Artillery Company
Cemetery is about 800 metres south of the village on the
west side of the D956 road to Beugenatre. It
commemorates nearly 2,000 WWI casualties, about half of
whom are unidentified.
It is a sobering thought that Private Coward
was just one of 1.7 million men and women from Britain and
the Commonwealth who gave their lives in two World Wars.
|
grave V.K.21, HAC Cemetery Ecoust St Mein, Pas de
Calais:
THEY NEVER DIE
WHO LIVE IN THE HEARTS
OF THOSE WHO LOVE THEM
with thanks to Jon Miller, N Devon, 2002
|
What do we know about about Private Francis Charles
Brockett Coward?
The starting point was the detail provided in the CWGC record given
above.
Francis Charles Brockett Coward was born on 21 March 1892 in
Houston, Renfrewshire. He was baptised on 21 September 1892 at
Holy Trinity & St Peter, Wimbledon.The Baptism Register entry
(no.970) says his name was Francis Charles (Brockett not mentioned) and
the Abode is given as Kingston Road, Leatherhead. His father Samson is
described as a Coachman.
His father was Samson Coward born 1861 in Stourpaine,
Dorset. In the 1881 Census Samson was a Kennel-man, lodging in the
stable of the Master of the Hunt in Leintwardine, Shropshire. In
1888 he was living at Cobham Court, at the time the home of the Surrey
Union Hunt, where he was a Kennel Keeper.
He married Agnes Brockett on 11 October 1888 at St Mary's,
Wimbledon. Agnes, aged 20, was a Spinster, residing in Worple Road,
Wimbledon. Her father, Francis Henry Brockett, was a musician.
In the 1891 Census the family were in Houston and Killela,
Renfrewshire. The Lanarkshire & Renfrewshire Foxhounds had their
kennels at Houston. There was a daughter, Agnes Sarah Dorothy
Coward born 1889, and a son - our soldier - Francis Charles
Brockett Coward who were both born there.
From Francis's baptism record the family were evidently in Leatherhead
by 1892 but so far where they lived in Kingston Road has not yet been
established. The Rate Books for that very long road are to be
investigated [February 2018].
Their next child, Vera Rowson Coward, was born in Leatherhead on
September 19 1893, but baptised at Holy Trinity & St Peter, South
Wimbledon. Rowson was Agnes's mother's maiden name. Vera was followed by
Ivy Ethel Coward, born in Leatherhead on October 7th 1895, baptised at
Holy Trinity & St Peter, South Wimbledon.
Samson was recorded as a Keeper when Vera was baptised in 1894 and as an
Ostler in when Ivy was baptised in 1895. In each case the Abode was
Church Street, Leatherhead. Samson was the householder in a
not-well-detailed 1895 Directory.
Samson died aged 35 in 1896 and his burial in the churchyard of St Mary
& St Nicholas, Leatherhead on April 2nd 1896, taken by the Vicar,
was recorded in the Burial Register, entry no.1680. As far as is known,
there is no record of his name on a marker or headstone.
The 1901 Census records that Agnes was 32 years old, now a widow, born
in Kingston, Surrey, resident Church Street, Leatherhead. With her
were her three daughters and Francis CB Coward, listed as a scholar aged
9, which fits his age when killed. Life cannot have been easy - her
occupation is 'Charwoman' - but when she died in 1934 she left a
tidy sum for those days.
Alun Roberts deduced from the order of enumeration of the Coward
household in the 1901 Census that they were at the High Street end of
Church Street. His research on the Rate Books showed that the Cowards
were living in a small cottage (£10 annual rent) situated off Church
Street in an alley which ran next to what used to be Clears, the
electrical retailers and is now a Queen Elizabeth's Foundation charity
shop. It probably had two or three bedrooms. The adjacent shop was James
Batten’s tobacconists. The cottage was demolished in 1913 when the
existing National Westminster Bank was built and the Swan Corner
widened.
At one time their landlord was Albion Ockenden, also the owner Hampton
Cottage where the family drilling company, Duke & Ockenden had an
office, as shown in an 1895 Francis Frith photograph of Church Street.
Today it houses Leatherhead Museum.
[For a time the story was confused by a 1911 street directory for
Leatherhead showing an F Coward (initial only) shown as resident at a
house in The Withies (no. 3, 1 & 2 are just by the present day
Catholic Church). Ian Whitlock was told that they may have been
brickmakers’ homes. The lower part of Copthorne Road had not yet been
built. F Coward's landlord was the eccentric James (‘Jimmy’) Edwards
with whom he apparently shared the house in 1911. James usually
preferred to sleep in hedgerows, however! He was the son of a wealthy
Bridge Street butcher, in whose shop his three brothers worked. He did
not himself, having always been a little peculiar. However, as
shown below, our soldier was living in NE London.]
The 1911 Census had a Francis Charles Coward aged 19 born in
Houston, Scotland and nephew of Arthur James Barnett or his spouse Daisy
Barnett née Woodberry. A Mary Coward married a Frank Woodberry, in West
Bromwich, registered in the September quarter of 1907. Francis was
recorded living with the Barnetts at 46 Castlewood Road, Upper Clapton,
Stamford Hill N.E. London. He was working in a limited company’s office as
a transfer clerk. Arthur Barnett was a Law Clerk in a firm of Solicitors.
In the 1907 Electoral Rolls Agnes was no longer in Leatherhead but at The
Street, Ashtead where she remained registered until 1912.
The 1911 Census records Agnes as a Dairy Manageress, living in 'High St',
Ashtead, in lodgings with daughter Ivy [in the Electoral Roll she is at The
Street, Ashtead in 1911; even today evidence can be found of local
use of 'High Street', Ashtead for properties and businesses in The Street,
Ashtead].
The head of the household was Thomas Lawrence, married, a plumber in the
Building trade who employed others. He will appear again.
According to Soldiers Died in the Great War Francis had enlisted
in London. His wartime service has been described above.
On March 13 1917 Agnes's mother Georgina Brockett, 75, was buried at St
James, Stamford Hill. Her abode was 46 Castlewood Road, Upper Clapton,
Stamford Hill, the same address where her soldier grandson Francis was
living in with the Barnetts in 1911.
In 1918 Agnes was living at 1 Pembury Grove, Hackney: Francis was listed
as an absent voter. Thomas Lawrence, with whom she had lodged in Ashtead,
was also living there.
The Register of Soldiers' Effects shows that in 1919 Agnes
received £26 14s 1d and Francis's three sisters £7 19s 11d each.
It would seem likely that Francis's grave marker became available in
the 1920s, when marker crosses were replaced by headstones. We know that
in 1920 Agnes was in correspondence about his medals. Agnes, or perhaps
another member of the family, must have arranged for the cross to given
to the church. It was where his father was buried.
At the time of the recording of his headstone by the then Imperial War
Graves Commission in the 1920s, Agnes was still at 1
Pembury Grove, Lower Clapton, London, where she remained until her
death in 1934. Her Probate record states: COWARD Agnes of 1
Pembury-grove Hackney London widow died 13 May 1934 to Rowson [sic] Vera
Coward spinster. Effects £647 0s 5d - a tidy sum in those days.
An Albert Samson Coward is buried in Leatherhead parish churchyard
(born 1901, died 1931). He is our soldier’s cousin - Samson
Coward's brother Frank also left Stourpaine and came to Leatherhead, as
a gardener. He married Edith Cox at St Mary & St Nicholas,
Leatherhead on 21 September 1896, address Gravel Hill, Leatherhead. This
was in the same year that his brother Samson was buried in Leatherhead.
They had five children, all baptised at St Mary & St Nicholas,
Leatherhead.
For whatever reason Private Francis Coward’s name is not
on the town memorial nor in the Parish Church Chapel of
Remembrance. That his WW1 wooden cross hangs in Leatherhead Parish
Church among some of the memorials to the great and good of the town,
and knowing a little of the hurdles that have to be overcome to put
anything on the walls of a church, suggests that there is an as yet
unwritten chapter in this story of loss and remembrance.
As Pam Exwood has said "Quite a big connection to the Church after all."
The Marker Cross
In April 2017 Frank Haslam met a couple, the Phillips, from the
Edinburgh area who were on holiday in the South of England. They had a
special interest in WW1 Grave Markers and had seen this web
page. With permission from a churchwarden on-site Frank was able to
retrieve Pte Coward's cross from its mounting in order to take more
detailed photos than before and to get measurements.
29 April 2017: locations of tags
|
29 April 2017: details of casualty |
29 April 2017: IWGC tag |
29 April 2017: faint remains of the soil marking can still be seen |
The following information and the photos above have been provided to
the Returned
From The Front website:
Details on cross (Text content of cross):
Top: I.W.G.C
Crossbeam: 510102. PTE. F.C.B. COWARD, 1/4. LONDON. [note: CWGC says
A Coy. 1st/14th Bn.,
London Regt. (London Scottish)]
29.8.18
Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): tags
Cross dimensions (millimetres please)
Shaft Height: 940mm
Cross beam width: 413mm
Width of wood: 22mm
Thickness or depth: 65mm
Other information
Mounting to wall: Nail
Detailing: see photos
Evidence of use in field (earth marking, cracking, staining, shrinkage):
70mm (some cut off?)
Surface insertion depth (into ground if apparent): staining – see photo
Finish (varnish, paint, oiled, unfinished etc): unfinished?
Condition (cracked, paint peeling, woodwork, damage etc): good
How you could help
Further work on the parish
magazines may reveal more about the placing of the
cross but nothing has been found so far (up to the end of 1923), nor has
preliminary on-line searching of Surrey newspapers.
Frank Haslam has been much assisted by Pam Exwood.
Lorraine Spindler, Ian Whitlock, John Morris and Alun Roberts have
also contributed.
Use has been made of the Ancestry, FreeBMD
and findmypast websites.
If you can add to this page, for example with photos or
further information, please contact the editor.
London
Scottish Regiment
Returned From The
Front
unless otherwise stated, images Haslam: last updated 31
Aug 2017: 13 Feb 2018
