Private Harry Walter Coxford fought in WW1 with the 2/6 (cyclist) Battalion Norfolk Regiment.
The cyclist regiment were initially on patrol in the UK before being drawn into the battles in the Somme in July 1916.
Pte Harry Walter Coxford wrote a series of letters to his parents, George and Elizabeth Coxford, at home in Norfolk. These letters were saved by his parents and passed onto my Grandfather; Harry’s nephew.
The earliest letters were sent on YMCA notepaper from Windsor Great Park in 1915; Harry was 19.
One letter, sent in September 1915 tells of the joy when the battalion received a gramophone from the Queen. “We have all just stood up and given three cheers for the gramophone.”
The letters continue, often thanking his parents for their gifts of cakes and fresh socks and remaining upbeat about the situation. One letter, dated August 2nd 1916, reads: “We are all going on fine here, all the lads talk of the happy times we had in England after we turn in at night, we lay in bed and imagine we are at home, in fact, we can hardly realise we are in France. Still you can depend on it that it won’t be long before we are back.”
This statement was tragically not to be the case, as, on the 4th of September 1916, Harry Walter Coxford was killed by German machine gun fire during a battle close to Bronfay Farm, south of Maricourt. He was 21 years old.
His letters and story have been published in “A Half Crown Holy Boy: The Story of the 2/6 (cyclist) Battalion Norfolk Regiment.” The book was written by Ronald George Coxford and published in 2007. His name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial.
Pte Harry Walter Coxford’s brother; Walter George Coxford tragically died just over a year later whilst fighting with the Northumberland Fusiliers. He is remembered at the Tyne Cot memorial, near Ypres in Belgium.
Words cannot express our gratitude for all that these brave men gave for us.
May their souls Rest In Peace.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
Christina James