Hello
I am trying to locate the Boer War service of George Cocks
This is what I know already
In the First World War, he was awarded the DCM on 03 Jun 1918 (as per London Gazette) as a Company Sergeant Major, acting Company Sergeant Major with the Lancs Fusiliers Reg No 6281. The citation (issued later) read : -
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. As C.S.M.. his work has always been all that could be desired, and while acting as R.S.M. he rendered valuable service prior to and during an attack in the guiding and supervision of ration and ammunition parties.
In 1918 he transferred to the Essex Regiment 10th Battalion having by then become Warrant Officer 2nd class. Reg No 50500
He was killed in action on the 8th August 1918 in an attack near Gressaire Wood, near the Bray-Corbie Road. Expected support from tanks was not able to arrive, and 80 men were reduced to 15. It is likely George Cocks died at this time.
An obituary from the Stockport Advertiser on 30th August 1918 read: -
Coy. Sergeant Major GEORGE COCKS
of Bredbury (killed)
Official news has come to his relatives
at Lyndhurst Avenue, Bredbury, that
Company Sergeant-Major George Cocks,
Son of Mr Richard Bond Cocks of Bredbury,
was killed in action on August 8th. He
had been in the Army over twenty years.
He served in the south African War,
where he had malaria. When the war
broke out he was in the Lancashire
Fusiliers, but was transferred to the
Essex Regiment. The War Office
utilised his services for a long time in
the training of men in Kitchener's
Army, and in later armies. But
he was anxious to be amongst the fight-
ing, and repeatedly volunteered for the
front. He got in several drafts going
out on active service, but was fetched
back. He offered to forfeit his rank if
he could get out. At last he was allowed
to go. He was gassed, and afterwards
returned to France. He was about 44
years of age, and single. As a young
man he attended St Mark’s Church and
Sunday School.
His brother Private Richard Cocks, a
former well-known Bredbury hair-
dresser, has also been in France, and
been invalided to England with
trench fever.
According to Soldiers who died in the Great War (IIRC), he enlisted in 1898 in Manchester.
Also I located him in the 1911 Census where he was a Sergeant in the 1st Batallion Lancs Fusiliers in Multan.
ANy help in identifying him in the Boer War would be appreciated
