Claude Edward Lane Cox 1893-1917
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Grange U3A Family and Social History Group Project on the Grange WW1 War Memorial A short biography in commemoration of Claude Edward Lane Cox 1893-1917 Claude Edward Lane Cox Service no 288884 th th Born 6 Oct 1893- died 30 Oct 1917 Claude Edward Lane Cox was born in Southport on 6th Oct 1893. His parents were Albert Edward Cox born 1st April 1864 and Rosa Matilda Lane born 9th October 1863. Albert was born in Nottingham, trained in Medicine at Edinburgh University and became a General Practitioner. Rosa was born in Alton Berners, Wiltshire. They met when Albert was on a cycling tour and stopped at Rosa’s family home to ask for a drink of water. They were married at St Mary’s Church, Woodborough, Wiltshire, on 10th August 1892. In 1901 the family lived at 36 Hoghton Street, Southport and they had two children Claude, seven years, and Marjorie Rosa, five years, born 26th July 1895. They had a governess, a house servant and a cook. At this time the children were obviously educated at home but later went to boarding school. Another daughter, Olive Kathleen, was born 19th January 1902, but sadly, Rosa died of TB on 6th January 1907 when Claude was 13. After his mother died Claude and his sisters spent many happy summer holidays with his uncle and aunt, Frederick and Agnes Lane, at their home the Manor House in Woodborough, Wiltshire. This was the house Claude's mother had lived in as a child as it had been her parents’ house. The wedding picture of Albert and Rosa 10th Aug 1892 On 19th October 1909 in Longton, Preston, Albert married Caroline Boardman. In 1911 the family were now living at 12a Queens Road, Southport and Claude was an apprentice lumber trader working in Liverpool (a person who brokers the buying and selling of timber) The family moved to Grange- over-Sands sometime between the latter half of 1911 to early 1912 and lived Claude with Olive and Marjorie c1905 at Inglewood on Kents Bank Road. Albert worked as a GP in Grange and they had three more children – Desmond Charles who was born in Southport, Frederick Gordon and Ivan Trevor, both born in Grange. Claude didn’t move to Grange with the family as he needed to be near his work in Liverpool, and was living in lodgings in May 1912 at 74 Kings Road, Bootle. However, Claude would have spent holidays and some weekends in Grange in order to spend time with his family, and he obviously thought of Grange as home. In 1913 Claude emigrated to Canada. He sailed to St. John, New Brunswick on 26th March 1913 from Liverpool on an Allan Line ship named the Hesperian, the journey taking 21 days. In the ship’s register he is noted as being 19 years old and a farmer. Attestation paper for Claude He eventually settled in Pipestone, Manitoba, was farming there and planned to return to Canada after the war to start up his own farm. The day after war broke out he decided to volunteer to join the army. He kept trying to enlist but was refused because he was narrow chested, 1” below the minimum chest measurement. He finally passed the medical examination and in November 1916 he joined the Canadian Infantry Regiment 78th Battalion as a private, was stationed at Minto Barracks, Winnipeg, Manitoba and later joined the 221 Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force (see Attestation above).. Minto Barracks, Winnipeg The expeditionary force sailed to Britain in April 1917 and his troopship Ausonia was nearly torpedoed crossing the Atlantic. He was stationed in Kent for a while during which time he managed to visit his family in Grange (see Claude’s letters). He served five months in France and Belgium before he was killed in action while going forward to repel a counter-attack on Passchendaele Ridge on 30th October 1917 (see obituary). His body was not found for burial and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres Belgium panel 24- 26-28-30 and on the Grange War Memorial. Obituary from the local Canadian paper The siblings he left behind. Claude’s sisters Marjorie and Olive c 1913* *The picture above was taken c1913 when Claude emigrated to Canada Claude's sister Marjorie Rosa (26.7.1895-25.12.1985) was two years younger than him. She had left home about 1915, obtained a B.A., and enrolled on a government-sponsored scheme which trained teachers provided they agreed to work for three years in Canada. In a letter Claude refers to planning to meet up with her in London on 22 May 1917 on his way to Grange on leave from his further army training in England. Marjorie arrived in Canada on 26 December 1919, later moving to America, marrying and bringing up a family there, and continuing to teach. Claude's sister Olive Kathleen (19.1.1902-11.9.1990) was eight years younger than him. She left boarding school in Southport in 1918 or 1919, and returned to the family home in Grange. She lived at home and helped to look after her three very young half-brothers, but was keen to travel. In about 1924 she met a married couple who liked to visit Grange: an English lady and a Dutch businessman; she was taken on as a companion to the lady. For four years she lived the life of the rich, going to Switzerland every winter and to Paris every autumn, and travelling with the family in Europe. In 1928 she returned to England and did a secretarial course in London Claude’s half brothers about 1918 . She met her future husband, Ronald Thompson, on the Grange golf course, and married him in 1930. His parents owned a brewery and hotel business in Barrow-in-Furness, but lived in Kents Bank. Later on in the 1930s, Ronald's parents moved into Fairhaven, Kents Bank. Olive and Ronald settled in Berkshire, and brought up their son there. Claude hardly knew his half-brothers, Desmond Charles (27.5.1911-11.2.1998), Frederick Gordon (known as Gordon) (8.6.1914-18.5.2005) and Ivan Trevor (11.9.1915-6.1990). When Claude emigrated to Canada in 1913 Desmond was nearly two, and Gordon and Ivan had not been born. Claude did not see his family again until May 1917 when he came over from Canada to fight and had leave from his army training. At that time Desmond would be nearly six, Gordon nearly three and Ivan twenty months. Desmond remembered Claude visiting Inglewood in his uniform. The father and stepmother he left behind, and their life in Grange Dr Albert Edward Cox Caroline Cox, Claude’s stepmother After Claude's death, his father Albert continued to live and practise as a family doctor and surgeon from Inglewood, Kents Bank Road, sometimes doing operations at home, assisted by his wife Caroline (Carrie). Albert was a gentle, quiet man. Albert owned one of first cars in Grange which he used to visit patients. He had a garage high up at the back left of the Inglewood back garden, accessed from Fernleigh Road. (In the 1980s the garage was pulled down and a house built there.) The Cox family were friendly with the Townley family who lived at Hazel Bank, Windermere Road. Beatrix Potter used to visit the Townleys, and dedicated her 1913 book "The Tale of Pigling Bland" to the Townley children, Cecily and Charlie. On occasions, when visiting the Townleys, Claude's half brothers would have stories read to them by Beatrix. Both back and front gardens of Inglewood were steep, so unsuitable for children to play in. However, immediately opposite there was another garden which belonged to Dr Cox and was completely flat, at the junction of Kents Bank Road and The Esplanade. This is where the children would play, and the maid would cross Kents Bank Road with the tea trolley. After the children grew up Dr Cox gave this garden to the town and it became known as Cox's Corner Inglewood, Kents Bank Road 1912-1932 . Eller Mount, Methven Road 1932-1937 In 1933 Albert retired and rented out Inglewood on a long lease to Dr. L. Hardman on 25 September. The family moved to Eller Mount, Methven Road in 1937. They then leased out Eller Mount and moved to 30 Greyhound Hill, Hendon, London, N.W.4. It is not known why they decided to move there; it may have been because their son Desmond had gone to London to study and re-train in a new career, and Desmond did move in with them. Desmond had previously trained as a stained-glass artist at Shrigley and Hunt in Lancaster, but had to leave that job when demand for memorial windows to the fallen of the first world war dropped in the early 1930s. He did try working on his own account, having a studio in Grange and living with his parents, but could not make a living out of it, so he decided to re-train as a civil engineer in London. In 1940, due to the bombing in London during the Second World War, Albert and Caroline did not often stay at their Hendon home, instead staying with relations out of London. They wanted to move back to Grange but could not as their two properties there were leased out on long leases. They visited Grange in October 1940, staying at the Belvedere Hotel, The Esplanade, where Albert died a few days later on 22 October, age 76.