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G/4927 2nd Battalion, (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Middlesex Regiment
Edwin Coates, known as Jack was born in Sudbury in 1890, the second son of Edward and Rosa Eleanor Coates (née Barton). His father was a manager of a confectionary bakery and the family lived at 28 Market Hill, Sudbury. By the time Jack was aged 10 the family had a boarding house in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight and in 1911 his father was described as a ‘restaurant proprietor’.
Jack continued in the same profession and at the age of 21 was employed as a cook at The Spa Hotel in Tonbridge, Kent. He was also a champion amateur wrestler.
Jack enlisted in Southend, Essex and served with the Middlesex Regiment. He landed in France on 27 December 1914 and the battalion which formed part of 23rd Brigade, 8th Division was sent to reserve billets at La Flinque. On the 9 March the battalion had moved to Estaires in preparation for the Allied offensive at the Battle of Neuve Chappelle (10 – 13 March). The battalion suffered 473 casualties killed, missing or wounded.
Jack was killed in action aged 24 on 14 March 1915 whilst assisting a wounded officer. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Le Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
On hearing that his son had been killed Edward Coates enlisted, he died from tuberculosis aged 55 on 21 September 1917 and both his name and Edwin’s are on the Shanklin War Memorial and the County War Memorial at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. Edward Coates is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid close to Edwin’s name on the Le Touret Memorial in October 2010 and on the Shanklin War Memorial in May 2015 for both Edwin and his father.
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