A Collection of Medals to the South Wales Borderers

Memorial Plaque (John Cadwallader Coker) good very fine £80-£120

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the South Wales Borderers.

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John Cadwallader Coker was born in Barton Regis, Gloucestershire, in 1887, the youngest son of Colonel L. E. and Mrs Coker of Bicester House, Oxfordshire. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the South Wales Borderers on 12 August 1908, and was promoted Lieutenant on 22 June 1911. He served with the 1st Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 19 October 1914); and fell mortally wounded at the Battle of the Aisne on 26 September 1914. The following account of Coker’s actions is given in the regimental history:
‘Before this the attack had spread to the right quarries where B Company and part of A were kept busy, Lieutenant Coker, who did splendid work, bringing up another platoon of A to support one already there. Here, despite all their efforts, the Germans failed to reach the quarries’ (The History of the South Wales Borderers 1914-18 by C. T. Atkinson refers.)

Coker is buried in Vendresse British Cemetery, France.

Sold with copied Medal Index Card and other research.