LIEUTENANT HENRY COWARD, 1st BATTALION BORDER REGIMENT DIED OF WOUNDS 20th APRIL 1917 AGED 37


LIEUTENANT HENRY COWARD, 1st BATTALION BORDER REGIMENT DIED OF WOUNDS 20th APRIL 1917 AGED 37




In mid April 1917 Henry Coward wrote to his father describing his first taste of action on the Western Front and his sorrow that his battalion was now moving out of the front line and away from the fighting. Although, he had joined the army in the early days of the war his experience as a teacher and Officer Cadet training meant that his skills were utilized to train new recruits.

Henry was born in Sheffield in 1880 the son of the famous conductor Henry Coward (later Sir) and his wife Louise in a large house in the best suburb of the city. His father was the conductor of the prestigious Sheffield Choral Society and had an international reputation. Like his father, young Henry excelled at music and was a noted classical scholar and sportsman, playing football and cricket and was also proficient at both swimming and wrestling. He attended the Wesley College in the City and from there went on to Kings College Cambridge as a choral scholar and attended his MA. His academic prowess was such that by his mid 20s he also held degrees from both Sheffield and London Universities.

In 1903 Henry obtained a post as an assistant master at Ilkley Grammar where he taught classics and was in charge of the cricket 1st XI. There exists a photograph of him with the school team taken in 1906 the year that he left and which is reproduced below.

It seems that he left Ilkley for a post at Newcastle-under-Lyme High School but in 1910 he returned to Yorkshire when he married Margaret Summerscales in Keighley. The following year his wife gave birth to a daughter Joan.

It was in March 1917 that Henry arrived on the Western Front as a Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Border Regiment and on the 29th he joined his unit as they prepared for the upcoming Arras offensive. Two weeks later the Battalion went into the front line and it was during this time that he wrote his last letter to his father. On the afternoon of the 19th April having been relieved the men of the Border Regiment made their way back into the ruined town of Arras where they would rest. At about 4am the following morning Henry and another officer where outside the billet when a stray German shell landed nearby wounding both men. Rushed to a casualty clearing station it was soon clear that Henry’s wounds were serious and later that day he died.

Today Lieutenant Henry Coward  lies in the British Military Cemetery at Warlencourt and is remembered with pride on the memorial at Ilkley Grammar School


Ilkley Grammar School 1st XI. Henry Coward is seated on the extreme left


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2nd LIEUTENANT LEONARD FOSTER, 15th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT (LEEDS PALS BATTALION) DIED OF WOUNDS 13th AUGUST 1916 AGED 28.

Image
2 nd LIEUTENANT LEONARD FOSTER, 15 th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT (LEEDS PALS BATTALION) DIED OF WOUNDS 13 th AUGUST 1916 AGED 28. On the morning of the of the 1 st July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, one thousand men of the Leeds Pals awaited the signal to leave the relative safety of their trenches and advance towards the German trenches situated a few hundred yards away in the remains of the village of Serre. Days of heavy British shelling had reduced the landscape to a sea of craters and it was blithely assumed that the enemy wire and trenches had been obliterated. At 7.30am precisely whistles blew and the Pals climbed out of their trenches and began to fan out before starting their deliberate advance towards the German lines. But contrary to their expectations the enemy had not been subdued and instead rushed to man their firing lines and opened up a deadly hail of machine guns bullets. The Leeds men now moving forward in lines walked steadily
Read more

PRIVATE 77570 HUGH McALISTER ALLAN-BLACK 9th BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS (LONDON REGIMENT) KILLED IN ACTION 8th AUGUST 1918 AGED 19

Image
PRIVATE 77570 HUGH McALISTER ALLAN-BLACK 9 th BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS (LONDON REGIMENT) KILLED IN ACTION 8 th AUGUST 1918 AGED 19 The youngest son of John Allan-Black and his wife Claire, Hugh was born in the hamlet of Stone Gappe near Lothersdale in the Craven District on the 25 th May 1899. His father was a wool merchant whose father Charles Ingham Black was a noted Irish scholar and poet and formally the Vicar of Burley in Wharfedale. His mother Claire nee Delius was the sister of the famous conductor Frederick Delius of Bradford and who in 1935 would write his biography. When Hugh was very young the family moved to Victoria Avenue in Ilkley where he attended the grammar school. However, in 1914 the family left the town and moved to Castletown on the Isle of Man where Hugh attended King Williams College. Hugh left school in 1917 when he achieved the age of 18 and enlisted into the army. His health was not of the strongest and he appears to have suffered from a w
Read more

2nd LIEUTENANT GERALD HARMER, 9th BATTALION NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 11th AUGUST 1916 AGED 21.

Image
2 nd LIEUTENANT GERALD HARMER, 9 th BATTALION NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 11 th AUGUST 1916 AGED 21. The 9 th North Staffs. spent much of the Spring and Summer of 1916 in the Somme area of the Western Front preparing for the planned offensive which the Allied High Command hoped would win the war. As a designated pioneer battalion the Staffordshires served a dual role, on the one hand as trained infantry, whilst on the other they had the necessary skills to accomplish important construction and engineering jobs which were a feature of static trench warfare. The battalion avoided the dreadful events of July 1 st , the beginning of the great Somme battle and busied itself just behind the front line constructing roads, trenches as well helping to bury the huge toll of dead from the heavy fighting. On the night of 10 th -11 th August 1916 the 9 th Staffs were in the front line near to Bezantin le Petit and sent out three companies to help widen and d
Read more