Wilfrid's Story.
Rifleman Wilfred Cope.
News has been received that Rifleman Wilfred Cope, of the Rifle Brigade, youngest son of the late Mr. John Cope, a former schoolmaster of the Nantwich Church of England schools, and Mrs cope, London Road Nantwich, has been killed during a bombardment of the trenches. A comrade, writing home, said that there were three of them at one point of the trench during a heavy bombardment. They were able to judge the flight of large shells coming through the air but the flight of the shell that killed young Cope deceived them so much that they were unable to judge exactly where it would drop. However, they got low down in the trench and after the explosion he (the writer) looked around and found that he was the only one unhurt. Wilfred Cope was killed outright, and the other comrade was wounded.
Rifleman Cope who was 25 years of age, join the army in September 1914, and went to the front in January of the following year. He was an old grammar school boy, and before the war he was at the London office off the Allan line. Two other brothers are serving, Percy and Rupert, the former having been wounded some months ago. Every sympathy is felt for Mrs. Cope and family, this being their second bereavement within a very short time.
Nantwich Guardian October 20, 1916.