John's Story.
Guardian Friday 9th June 1916
“Private John Cox son of Mr. and Mrs. George Cox of the Railway Cottages, Acton Bridge, who is attached to the Machine Gun section of the Cheshire Regiment has been so dangerously wounded that at first it was feared the consequences would be fatal. According to a letter received by his mother last week from the matron of the General Field Hospital, he was seriously wounded in the chest and leg and as a result had lost some power in his hands and legs. A more comforting letter reached Mrs. Cox on Tuesday from the matron, in which she states that the surgeons had preformed an operation on Private Cox and that this had been successful. The letter added that his condition was slightly improved and the doctors were hoping that with care and attention he would recover.”
Cox’y as I have started to call John shows, for me, another side of the returning lads. John Cox is Private Cox No 14824, of the 10th Bn. Cheshire Regiment. His attestation papers are available which shows him being born in Staffordshire. His father working with the railway and he transferred, with his family to Acton Bridge Station late 1890’s. The 1911 census confirms John as being born in Eccleshall and that there was a younger brother, William, who was born in Acton Bridge about 1900. John completed an apprenticeship as a painter.
The attestation papers show that John was seriously injured at the end of May 1916. He is recorded as in a field hospital on the 29th May, still seriously ill on the 7th June but then removed from the seriously ill list on the 8th June as he had improved after the operation. By the 17th June, John was in the War Hospital Bradford. (Bradford had several WW1 hospitals this one known as Bradford War Hospital - St Luke’s Hospital run by Bradford Board of Guardians opened Dec 1915 - July 1919. ) He was still there on the 21st Oct 1917. John was discharged from war service on the 24th July 1918. The records go on to show that John died on the 31st July 1923. He was in Grangethorpe Hospital Rusholme. He had been living with his wife, Edith Helen Cox, at 33 Lime Grove, Cheadle. [It is very likely John would have been on a war pension and this would be why there is additional information on the records.]
Still wishing to confirm all this, I applied for John’s death certificate. This confirmed I had the right man, John died on 31st July 1923 at Grangethorpe Hospital Rushholme U.D. John was 30 years old and lived at 33 Lime Grove, Cheadle with his wife Edith H. Cox. He was an army pensioner and his trade was still recorded as Painter and Decorator. With the death certificate confirming so much on Cox’y, I tried to find his marriage certificate using freebmd. Cox’y married Edith Helen Martin on the 2nd September 1922 at Northwich Registry Office. His address is recorded as Station House, Acton Bridge and Edith’s as 33 Lime Grove. Cheadle. (I must admit I had assumed that Edith would have worked at Grangethorpe Hospital but her profession is recorded as assistant at Cycle Works.)
Patricia Gray of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society wrote a very good article on the Grangethorpe Hospital, see Vol. 78 1975, this was also reproduced in booklet form. In the 12 years the hospital was open approximate 15,000 men were to become patients, of these, 350 died of their injuries. The hospital had a book of remembrance for these lads which was taken to St. James Church, Birch-in-Rusholme, on the 29th October 1929 when the hospital closed. St. James Church closed in the 1980’s. What happened to the book of remembrance?
Research Bob Heaton