Roll of Honour - Cambridgeshire

The Royal British Legion

24069 Private, 8th Suffolk Regiment. Died of wounds 3-7-16, wounded 1-7-16. (CWGC 1-7-16), age 21. Son of Mrs E E Seekings, The Hook. Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.

432 Cpl, 1/1st Cambridgeshire Regiment. Killed in action 13-11-16, age 39. Fincham Farm, Stonea. Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

48825 Private, 26th (Bankers) Royal Fusiliers. Died of wounds 29-9-17, age 32. Lived Stonea. Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinghe, Belgium.

43916 Private, 12th Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action 16-10-18, age 27. Husband of Emily Bradshaw, High Street. Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Belgium.

6805 Sgt, 6th Northamptonshire Regiment. Killed in action 8-8-18, age 31. Husband of Edith Bradshaw, The Toll House. Dive Copse Cemetery, Sailly-le-Sec, Somme, France.

40128 Private, 9th Norfolk Regiment. Killed in action 21-10-18, age 25. Son of Mr W Bradshaw. Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau, France.

206378 Gunner, 20th Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery. Killed in action Egypt 28-11-17, age 24. Son of John & Naomi Cutteridge, Wimblington. Husband of Fanny Elizabeth Cutteridge, High Street. Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel.

40114 Private, 7th Leicestershire Regiment. wounded 27-5-18, believed Killed in action . Son of Mr & Mrs W B Cox, Stonea. Cox was not killed as believed, but was using an alias and living in Sawston, Cambridge. He died in 1952.

THE TIMES - August 08, 2005

Soldier's name is purged from war dead memorial
By Jack Shenker and Lewis Smith

THE name of a soldier who was found alive and well more than 20 years after being reported dead in the First World War is to be erased from a village war memorial.

It is believed that Private Percy Bush Cox will be the first soldier to have his name removed from a British war memorial after a ruling by the village authorities of Wimblington, Cambridgeshire.

His apparent death on the Western Front was followed by an extraordinary tale of survival that was to end in an alleged blackmailing and an attempted murder. Mr Cox disappeared from the 7th Leicestershire Regiment while serving on the Western Front in May 1918. In 1919 his family was told officially that he was presumed to have been killed.

In 1940, however, he was reunited with his father and siblings when he was found to be living just a few miles from the family home. The soldier claimed, according to his sister, that in 1918 he took the identity of a dead Australian soldier and took his place in an Australian Regiment. At the end of the war, he maintained, he was shipped to Australia, where he stayed until 1925, when he returned to Britain under the name Ernest Durham.

A local newspaper reported the family reunion in 1940 and has unearthed archive material indicating that Mr Cox visited Wimblington to look at his name on the war memorial.

Historians, however, believe that, having been badly wounded and gassed before his disappearance, Mr Cox deserted.

Brian Krill, who runs the Cambridgeshire branch of the War Memorials Trust, said: “The thing which we found most strange was the fact that he never tried to get in contact with his family, even when he was back in the UK.”

Amanda Carlin, a parish councillor in Wimblington who is researching Private Cox’s life, said: “It’s easy to say he was a cowar. But there must have been a compelling reason for him to abandon his identity.”

Wimblington parish councillors are not removing his name from the village war memorial in the churchyard on the grounds that he was a suspected deserter, they say, but in the interests of accuracy.

A further twist to Mr Cox’s disappearance came in 1954, when he shot and wounded his cleaner, Dorothy Piper, before killing himself with the same gun. At the inquest it was revealed that shortly before committing suicide he wrote notes suggesting that he was being blackmailed by the cleaner and her husband, George. Mr and Mrs Piper denied blackmail, though the inquest was told £2,000 had been withdrawn from Mr Cox’s account in the previous nine months.

238026 Private, 4th Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action 23-4-17. Son of Mr & Mrs J Davison, King Street. Arras Memorial, France.

58338 Private, 58th Coy, Machine Gun Corps. Killed in action 11-4-18, age 33. Youngest son of George & Harriet Fisher, Eastwood End. Formerly G/10074 East Kent Regiment. Beacon Cemetery, Sailly-Laurette, France.

325770 Private, 1/1st Cambridgeshire Regiment. Killed in action 26-9-17, age 22. Son of Mr & Mrs Joseph Fisher, The Hill. Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.

3171 Private, 1/1st Cambridgeshire Regiment. Killed in action 14-10-16, age 19. Known as Johnny. Son of Mrs Sarah Jane Fox, The Hill. Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

A/200577 Rifleman, 18th (Arts & Crafts) King's Royal Rifle Corps. Died of wounds 28-3-18. Lived Horsemoor Drove. Formerly 6211 Cambridgeshire Regiment. Arras Memorial.

21984 Sgt, 118th Coy, Machine Gun Corps. Killed in action 21-9-17, age 25. Formerly 3014 Cambridgeshire Regiment. Son of William & Lilian Hassock. Tyne Cot Memorial,Belgium. See also Liverpool Street Station, London

61358 Private, 10th (Stockbrokers) Royal Fusiliers. Died of wounds 5-5-17, age 27. Son of Thomas Bradshaw James & Mary Jane James, King Street. Formerly 23150 East Surrey Regiment. Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.

22000 Private, 4th Grenadier Guards. Killed in action 25-9-16, age 18. Son of David & Frances Jones, King Street. Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

8751 Private, 2nd Suffolk Regiment. Captured Le Cateau 26-8-14. Died pleurisy, Padershom, Germany, PoW 15-12-14, age 20. Niedezwheren Cemetery, Germany.

1679 Trooper, 1st Norfolk Yeomanry. Died jaundice 5-12-15. Son of Mr James Morton, The Hook. Ari Burnn Cemetery, Turkey.

44009 Private, 9th Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action 10-10-16, age 35. Fifth son of late Mr E Neville, Stonea. Formerly 4173 Suffolk Regiment. Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.

42065 Gunner, C Battery, 106th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Killed in action 1-8-17, age 20. Buried Aeroplane Cemetery, Ieper.

8732 Private, 1st Norfolk Regiment. Died of wounds 23-4-15, age 22. Son of Edwin Parr, Horsemoor. Blauwepoort Farm Cemetery, Belgium.

27726 Private, 7th Shropshire Light Infantry. Killed in action 21-8-18, age 20. Formerly 21515 Suffolk Regiment. Vis-en-Artois Memorial, France. See also Liverpool Street Station, London

G/43795 Private, 1st Middlesex Regiment. Died of wounds 29-10-16, age 23. Known as Jack. Youngest son of Tom & Sarah Redhead, Parkfield Lane. Grove Town Cemetery, Somme, France.

161733 Cpl (dispatch rider), 14th Divisional Signal Coy, Royal Engineers. Died pneumonia, Mesopotamia 11-10-18. Known as Reg. Son of Joseph & Julia Reynolds, Hill House. Teheran War Cemetery, Iran.

26742 Private, 11th (Cambs) Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action 19-4-18, age 29. Lived County Cottage. Youngest son of Arthur and Annie Saberton. Buried Suffolk Cemetery, La Rolanderie Farm, Erquinghem-Lys, France.

Buried in churchyard

53609 Driver, 118th Battery, Royal Field Artillery. 15-10-19, age 32. Inquest report in Cambs Times 24/10/1919. George Prior of 14 Gas Road, March. Son of Mr George Prior of the same address. Died six months after leaving the army, whilst working for the railway in a ballast pit at Whittlesey station the earthen wall collapsed on him burying him alive. Inquest report in Cambs Times 24/10/1919. We are unsure of how he qualified for his CWGC stone

5932917, Private, CCompany, 2nd Btn. Cambridgeshire Rgt, Suffolk Regiment. , died at sea, 21 September 1944, age 33. Husband of Prudence Brooks, Russell Square, Wimblington. Singapore Memorial, Singapore.

5932674, Private, 2nd Btn. Cambridgeshire Rgt, Suffolk Rgt, 24-1-42, age 23, killed in action, in Malaya. Son of Harry & Florence Burton, of Church St, Wimblington. Singapore Memorial, Singapore.

1336708, Sgt, 83 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, based Wyton, Hunts, flew Lancasters. 18-6-43 Wimblington (St Peter) Churchyard.

P/J 113174, Telegraphist, HM Submarine Thistle, Royal Navy. 14-4-40. Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire.

P/JX 263174, Ord Seaman, HMS Airedale, Royal Navy. 15-6-42, age 30. Husband of Majorie Hope Newell. Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire.

Flight Sgt, 1873911, Air Gunner, 49 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, based Fiskerton, Lincs, flew Lancasters, died 8-7-44. Baker at Russell's, Broad St, March. Died age 20 during Mosquito raid on German rocket launch site in France. Son of William & Gladys Violet Parkinson, of Council Houses, Main Rd, Wimblington. Le Chesne Communal Cemetery Extension, Eure, France. DFM = Distinguished Flying Medal.

5833081, L/Cpl, 142nd Rgt (7th Suffolk) Royal Armoured Corps. 23-4-43, age 30. Son of George Herbert & Elizabeth Peacock, of The Bungalow, Wimblington; husband of Mrs Peacock, of Luton. Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery, Tunisia.

52745, Wren, HMS Cabott, Women's Royal Naval Service. Found drowned in River Wharfe at Tadcaster, Yorks 1-9-43, age 19. Daughter of Alfred Jasper & Mary Wild, of March Rd, Wimblington. Wimblington (St Peter) Churchyard.

158793, Pilot Officer, 57 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, based East Kirkby, Lincs, flew Lancasters. Died 27-1-44. Son of Oliver & Nelly Wright, of Wimblington. Nelly was the widow of H J Smart (see Manea WW1) & remarried to Oliver Wright; their son A O Wright appears on the war memorial lists for 1939-45 at Manea and Wimblington. Runnymede Memorial, Surrey.

Private, 1st Btn Worcestershire Regiment. Youngest son of Mr William Hare, King St, Wimblington. Died 2-10-1938, age 25, at Government Hospital, Jerusalem. Hare had served in the army for six years and the Reserve for six months, but re-enlisted on 5-9-38, sailing for Palestine on 15-9-38 & landing 27-9-38. During a military search on 29-9-38, Hare was seriously wounded in the head by Arabs & died three days later.

Private, Suffolk Regiment, d 28/1/1945, age 18, buried: NEDERWEERT WAR CEMETERY, Limburg, Netherlands. Son of Bertie and Elizabeth May Prior, of Wimblington, Cambridgeshire.