Lance Corporal F H Cox

Frederick Henry Cox was born in December 1897 in Wimbledon. His father, also Frederick, was a ‘navvy on the road’. In 1901 he and his wife Annie were living at 29 Milton Road, Wimbledon with Frederick, his two brothers and a sister.

By 1911 his father had died. At the time of the 1911 census Frederick was 13 and the family were living at 29 Quicks Road, Wimbledon with Charles Swain and his family. His mother was working as a charwoman and his 15 year old sister was a domestic servant.

Private Cox enlisted in the East Surrey Regiment Reserve on 12th April 1915. At the time he was 18 years and 3 months old and working as a fitter’s mate. He was now living at 11 Leyton Road, Wimbledon. He embarked for service with the British Expeditionary Force on 26th January 1916 and joined the First Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment on 29th January. At the time the battalion was billeted in Beaucourt-sur-L’Hallue on the Somme.

Frederick had now been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. On 3rd September, on the first day of the Battle of Guillemont, he was received a serious shrapnel wound in his head and suffered from shell shock. He was shipped home to England on 7th September 1916.

In the following year he was treated in hospitals in Eastbourne and Exeter. The gunshot wound had left him paraplegic in his right side. He eventually died at home of his wounds on 5th December 1917. He was 20 years old.

Lance Corporal Cox’s grave is in the Wimbledon (Gap Road) Cemetery. He is buried in Row C.C4.24.