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Pte. John Cokley
British Army 4th Btn. Middlesex Regiment
from:Poplar. London
(d.23rd Aug 1914)
John Cokley enlisted on the 14th August 1914 into the 4th Battalion Duke of Cambridges Own Middlesex Regiment. Nine days later on the 23rd August 1914 in the very first battle of the war at the locks along the Mons-Condé Canal and Obourg Railway Station, Mons, Belgium, he was killed (missing) along with over 400 men and officers. John was awarded the 1914 Mons Star, British Medal, and Victory Medal (Pip Squeak & Wilfred) and he is commemorated on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre War Memorial at Seine-et-Marne in France.
He left behind a wife Lilian who was eight months pregnant with her last child, and three other children aged 7,3 and 2. John was just an ordinary soldier of the BEF. He was of Irish descent and his forbears came to England following the potato famine in Ireland. They lived wretched lives in the St.Giles 'rookery' in London. Nevertheless he deserves to be remembered. He was the grandfather I never knew, like many of my generation.
