| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Robert Cocks, aged 29, was killed in action at the end of Mar 1917. His army records state his death was 28 March, but Commonwealth War Graves entry states that it was 29 March. His body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Arras Memorial in the city of Arras, France. He was awarded the War and Victory medals.
Robert enlisted in Beverley 14 Feb 1916 and was mobilised on 5 Jun of that year. Originally assigned to the York and Lancaster Regiment he was transferred within a month to the 2nd Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment and arrived in France on 15 Oct 1916. His service record indicates that on 15 Apr 1917 in the action on the Scarpe, to the east of Arras, Robert was posted as missing but found the next day with a gunshot wound to his thigh that necessitated treatment in the Nottingham area. He arrived back in France on 29 Jul of that year but was wounded again on 21 Nov 1917, receiving shrapnel wounds to his wrist. He again had treatment in the UK and returned to France for the final time on 24 Febr 1918.
Robert was born Jan 1889 in Lund. His father William Cocks was a farm labourer, his mother was Hannah Hesslewood. They had six children in total. Robert became a farm worker in 1911 he was employed as a shepherd at the Byass farm in Cherry Burton; immediately before joining up he was working at Highgate Farm in the village. He was unmarried.
Robert is remembered today on the Hengate Memorial and the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |