Private Ernest Gough Coxon Royal Army Medical Corps
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In memory of Private Ernest Gough Coxon Royal Army Medical Corps Regimental Number 101620 Ernest Gough Coxon was born in Netherseal in April 1890, son of William Brotherhood Coxon and Elizabeth (nee Gough). He was baptised on 29th March 1891. Ernest was the third of four children. He had two brothers, John William and Edward, and a sister, Mary Elizabeth. In the 1891 Census records, Ernest and his family were living at the Cricketts Inn, Acresford. His grandfather John Brotherhood was a Licensed Victualler and his father was a Brewery Labourer. His mother Elizabeth was the Housekeeper. 1 1 1 Page Family Tree information provided by Jill Hempsall using records from Ancestry.co.uk The 1891 Census shows Ernest’s father William was recorded with a surname of Brotherhood, as is the whole family. This seems to be something that changes for each Census. Sometimes the family are registered as Coxon (1861, 1901 and 1911), and sometimes Brotherhood (1871, 1881).2 Ernest’s grandfather is a Brotherhood. 2 2 Page www.ancestry.co.uk 1891 Census At the time of the 1891 Census, there were five cottages around the Cricketts Inn, with families living in each one. The occupations listed were Maltster, Brewery Waggoner, Coachman, and Farm Labourer/Shepherd.3 In the 1901 Census, Ernest was 11 years old and still living at the Cricketts Inn with his family and grandfather. Ernest’s father was a Farm Labourer Waggoner and his mother a Dairy Maid. Ernest’s eldest brother John was a Farm Labourer Cowman.4 By 1911, Ernest was 21 years old, single and still living with his family. They were now living at Coronation Villa on the outskirts of Netherseal. His grandfather was retired,so they no longer lived at the Cricketts Inn. This photo of Coronation Villa was taken in 2018. In 2019, the building was knocked down and a new house built. 3 3 www.ancestry.co.uk 1891 Census 4 Page www.ancestry.co.uk 1901 Census By 1911, Ernest was working as a Pipe Works Machine Feeder, Sanitary Pipe Works. We know from an obituary article in the Burton Chronicle of 1918 that Ernest worked for Messrs Robinson and Dowler Pipe Works at Overseal. 4 Page This photograph shows the Robinson and Dowler Pipe Works factory at Overseal.5 Below that is a map from around 1900, overlaid onto a more up to date map towards the right hand side.6 The Pipe Works factory where Ernest worked is on the top left of the map (Canal Works, Sanitary Pipe). Air pollution from the Pipe Works affected the whole area. Great swathes of smoke belched from the kilns and chimneys. Salt glazing, an important process in the production of pipes, produced hydrochloric acid when salt was thrown onto them, and this gave off an acrid smell that permeated the area, especially on foggy mornings. Noise, dust and grime were the norm. Wildlife was lacking, apart from fox families and rabbits that made their homes in the clay holes.7 It is possible to understand then why Ernest chose to join the army. 5 5 Photo from www.blacktogreen.org.uk; 6 Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland 7 Page From Pit to Plantation Walk www.discoveringbritain.org On 4th September 1915, Ernest enlisted as a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps at Netley, near Southampton.8 He was 25 years old. 6 8 Page www.ancestry.co.uk British Army WW1 Service Records 1914-1920 9 7 9 Page www.ancestry.co.uk British Army WW1 Service Records 1914-1920 On 28th December 1915, Ernest married Beatrice Mary Wagg, after the Banns had been read at St Peter’s Church in Netherseal.10 At the time, Beatrice was living at Seale Pastures Farm in Netherseal. Ernest was stationed with the RAMC at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley for two years - from 4th September 1915 to 10th September 1917.11 It is not known what role he performed whilst he was there. The Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley (also known as Netley Hospital). 12 10 8 www.ancestry.co.uk CofE Marriages and Banns, Seale St Peters; 11 www.ancestry.co.uk British Army WW1 Service Records 1914-1920; 12 Page www.qaranc.co.uk/netleyhospital.php The vast Royal Victoria Hospital was as big as a town, with its own gasworks, bakery, school, stables, reservoir and even a prison. But it was still too small to cope with the industrial-scale carnage of the first world war. In response to the unimagined new scale of war, a vast "hutted hospital" was constructed, using wooden "kit-built" field huts on the plateau behind the main hospital. 13 14 Thousands of men and women lived and died in this place, remembered in sepia- scored letters and postcards, and pictures taken by local photographers – very few of which survive today. 9 13 www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/aug/21/first-world-war-royal-victoria-hospital-netley-in-pictures; 14 Page www.netley-military-cemetery.co.uk/1914-1918-wwi/british-red-cross-hospital; Patients wore blue woollen suits with white lapels and red ties, called "hospital undress" – a reminder to anyone who might encounter convalescent soldiers that they were still serving men (and not potential cowards to be handed white feathers). 15 So vast and teeming was this wartime site - up to three trains a day would arrive to bring wounded from the front - only here could British civilians come close to the reality of what was going on in Europe. The infrastructure needed to supply and staff Netley meant that the local population knew better than most the true horror of the war – a story carefully concealed from the rest of the country by a government wary of its effect on morale. At Netley, young nurses, often in their teens and with no previous medical experience, had to deal with men without limbs or faces, and men who had lost their minds to the war. Netley also boasted the first purpose-built military asylum. Here men suffering extreme psychosis were treated. One-half of all men suffering from shellshock were cleared through or treated at Netley. 16 10 15 www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/aug/21/first-world-war-royal-victoria-hospital-netley-in-pictures; 16 Page www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/aug/21/first-world-war-royal-victoria-hospital-netley-in-pictures On 11th September 1917, Ernest left Netley Hospital and was posted to France. He embarked Southampton, and arrived at Le Havre on 12th September. He travelled to Rouen on 16th September and joined the Cyclists Base Depot. 17 11 17 Page www.ancestry.co.uk British Army WW1 Service Records 1914-1920; The Base Depot at Rouen dealt with supplies, reinforcements, remounts, ordnance, mechanical transport and the sick and wounded (hospitals). No.5 General Base Depot was for the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corp).18 At some stage in September 1917, Ernest transferred from the Rouen Base Depot to the 32nd Base Hospital at Wimereux.19 Base Hospitals were part of the casualty evacuation chain, further back from the front line. They were manned by troops of the Royal Army Medical Corps, with attached Royal Engineers and men from the Army Service Corps. In the theatre of war in France and Flanders, the British hospitals were generally located near the coast. They needed to be close to a railway line, in order for casualties to arrive (although some came by canal barge); they also needed to be near a port where men could be evacuated for longer-term treatment in Britain. These hospitals were large facilities, often centred in some pre-war buildings such as seaside hotels. They grew in number and scale throughout the war. 20 The 32nd Base Hospital at Wimereux. The 32nd Base Hospital was formerly the Australian Voluntary Hospital, staffed largely by Australian doctors and nurses based in the UK. It was originally set up in Le Havre in August 1914 and then moved to St Nazaire in September because of the German advance. The 100-bed hospital was set up in a park under canvas and began receiving casualties from the retreat from Mons the next day. On 26 October 1914, the Voluntary Hospital moved to Wimereux where it established a 200-bed hospital. It was well equipped, with motor ambulances donated by organisations in Australia, a pathology lab and the only X-Ray unit in the area. The day after it opened on 29th October, it began receiving patients from the First Battle of Ypres. The voluntary hospital was eventually absorbed into the British Army as No. 32 Stationary Hospital. By May 1919, the hospital had treated 73,868 patients.21 18 www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/other-aspects-of-order-of-battle/british-base-depots-in-france-1914-1918 19 ncestry.co.uk British Army WW1 Service Records 1914-1920 12 www.a 20 www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/british-base-hospitals-in-france/ 21 Page www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Voluntary_Hospital 22 The 32nd Stationary Hospital at Wimereux (and formerly the Grand du Golf et Cosmopolite). The canvas tents by the hospital was accommodation for the nursing staff.23 24Photographs of the 32nd Stationary Hospital at Wimereux. 22 thecowkeeperswish.com/tag/ww1-nurses; 13 www. 23 www.huntervalleygreatwarnurses.com/about/short-stories/australian-first-for-newcastle-matron 24 Page https:/www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205243940; The Influenza Pandemic of 1918. The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe in recent history. It spread worldwide and it is estimated that about 500 million people became infected.