W A Coom

William Alfred Coom

Baptised 29 January 1888, St Austell  Died of Wounds 21 April 1917

Private 1170 17 Battalion D Company Australian Imperial Force

Enlisted 2 February 1915 at Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia

Buried at Grevillers British Cemetery, France

William was the son of Alfred Coom, a gardener, and his wife Emily Luke. Emily was the daughter of William Luke, a tinker from Dulverton in Somerset, who had settled in the West Hill area of St Austell.  The couple married in St Austell on 30 October 1885 and lived in St Austell, Roche and, by 1911, were living at Windsor Cottages off Berry Road in Newquay.  

 In the 1911 Census return Mrs Coom states that she had 10 children, 5 of whom were still living.  I've not found all of their names, but as best I can tell, here are 7 of them:

Lillian Maud born 1886

William Alfred 

Edith Gladys born 1889

Maud Mary  born 1891

Thomas Henry 1892 - 1972

Gladys Mary born 1893

Reginald born 1894 (died as an infant)

Reginald born 1898 

I can't find an emigration date for William, but he evidently left for Australia and found work as a station hand.  He enlisted in early 1915 and was soon aboard SS Themistocles bound for Gallipoli.  He soon ran foul of the army; he was caught sleeping at his post on 12 September  and sentenced to Field Punishment No. 2.  for a period of 28 days.  Before the 28 days were up, he was in hospital suffering the effects of dysentery.  A bout of enteric fever (typhoid) followed and William was sent to Graylingwell War Hospital, Chichester by the end of the October.  He was back at a base in London for a couple of months, where he was docked pay for a deficiency of kit.  In August 1916 he was in France.

17th Battalion waiting for troop trains in Italy 1915

By photographer not identified [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

William had several more hospital visits, for scabies, trench foot and boils.  His final visit came after he was wounded in action on 19 April 1917.  He had gunshot wounds in his foot and abdomen.  He died on 21 April 1917.  William was killed during the Battle of Arras, which lasted from 9 April to 16 May 1917.  The Unit's War Diary does not make any mention of casualties on 19 April, though there are many reported a few days earlier on 15 April.  What is certain, is that the Australians were heavily outnumbered but managed to inflict more casualties than they sustained.

Back in England, Alfred never knew his son's fate; he died a month before war was declared.  Emily seems to have lived through another war, dying in 1947.  William's brother Thomas found a job with the Post Office and worked in Newquay.  

On a personal note, one of my great-uncles, Ernest, was also with the 17th Battlion (A company) and travelled out to Gallipoli on the same troop ship as William.  Ernest and  one of his brothers, Reginald, had moved to Australia to live with my great-grandmother's brother, who was the foreman of the goods yard at Sydney Railway Station.  So, William may possibly have bumped into my great-uncle on board the ship, or my great-great uncle through his work as a station hand.  

S Jacka - An Australian Cornishman on ANZAC Day

Sydney Jacka

Born in 1893 at Sydney, NSW, Australia.  Died 6 November 1914 in or near Bristol.

Pte 1969 2nd Wessex Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps.

Sydney Jacka was born in Sydney, Australia in 1893 to John and Ellen Jacka.  The NSW register shows his middle initial as "E", however his is listed as Sydney James Jacka on the list of soldiers dying in WW1.  What is certain is that his father was Newquay born and bred.  John's mother, Elizabeth, appears to have been widowed early and brough John and his siblings up herself, working as a dressmaker into her seventies to support herself and her family.  John made a living as a carpenter and joiner and plied his trade in Australia for a while.  However, by the turn of the century he was back in Newquay living in Belmont Place, just up the road from his mother.  Sydney had three sisters and a younger brother, Ernest, born in Newquay in 1899. 

Sydney clearly answered his country's call promptly and became a driver for the 2nd Wessex Brigade Field Ambulance.  Field Ambulances were not vehicles (as I once thought!) but a mobile front line medical unit.  Sydney would have been driving the horses pulling the carts carrying equipment.  I have no information as to how Sydney met his death; perhaps it was simply an accident, perhaps he became ill.  He is buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol.  As an Australian Sydney is also listed on the Australian Commemorative Roll. 

With Sydney's death John and Ellen Jacka lost their only surviving son; young Ernest had died aged three.  They appear to have continued living in Belmont Place for many years. 

Writing about Sydney today is something of a coincidence.  On my family history blog today I have written about two of my great uncles.  They lived in Bristol, not far from Arnos Vale Cemetery, but emigrated to Sydney, NSW from where they embarked for Gallipoli and then the Western Front where they were killed in action.  http://www.theviewfromthetreehouse.blogspot.com/.