First World War in Headington & Marston
Roll of Honour of Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry

Edward Charles COPPOCK (1898–1918)

Edward Charles Coppock was born in Swindon in 1898, the son of Harry Coppock (born in Headington Quarry and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 3 June 1866) and Mary Elizabeth Smith (born at the Pheasantry, Warminster, Wiltshire in 1873, and registered fourth quarter as Elizabeth Mary).

Edward’s parents were married (evidently in haste) at St Paul’s Church in Swindon on 12 May 1898, and had five children:

• Edward Charles Coppock (born at 69 Deacon Street, New Swindon on 24 November 1898)
• Harry William Coppock (born in Headington Quarry, baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 1 September 1901; died aged 13 months and buried in the churchyard on 13 September 1902)
• Cornelia Elizabeth Coppock (born in Headington Quarry, baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29 March 1903)
• Margaret Vera Coppock (born in Headington Quarry in c.1905)
• Edith Kate Coppock (born in Headington Quarry on 29 October 1909, baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 28 November 1909).

At the time of the 1891 census, Edward’s father Harry (24) was still single and living in Quarry High Street with his parents, working as a general labourer. He started off his married life in his wife’s home town of Swindon, where Edward was born; but by the spring of 1901 they had moved to Harry’s home village of Headington Quarry, and the census shows them living at Harley’s Row. Harry was then a boiler smith’s labourer, and Edward was a child of two.

By the time of the 1911 census, the family is shown as living in New Inn Cottages at the south-east end of the London Road, which was in Quarry parish. (It is likely that New Inn Cottages were one and the same as Harley’s Row, and the house is now numbered 278 London Road.) Edward’s father was then a labourer with the “Cowley Steam Plough” and Edward (12) was still at school.

Edward Coppock lied about his age, and joined the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry early on in the First World War when he was about sixteen. In a letter dated 23 February (no year given, but likely to be 1915), William Stone (Edward’s friend) had a letter from his mother which included the line: “Mrs Coppock upset about Eddie and he don’t like being there don’t get enough to eat.” On 9 April 1916 Mrs Stone wrote, “Do you know he [Eddie] is in hospital with French Fever but is getting better now?” and “Mrs Coppock has been trying to get Eddie back but Major Melville Lee told her he would let her know but he did not think they would as he had been passed fit and gave his age as 19.” (Major William Lauriston Melville Lee lived at Stoke House in Old Headington.)

Edward Coppock did in fact return home to Headington, but as soon as he had his eighteenth birthday he was officially called up, and rejoined the army as a Private in the 11th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (Service No. 302664). He was sent to Chelmsford on Friday 5 January 1917.

On 6 Sept 1918 Coppock’s mother’s friend wrote in a letter, “Eddie Coppock is expecting to be home on leave soon”; but five weeks later on 15 October 1918 (less than a month before the Armistice) he was killed in action in Belgium at the age of 19.

He was buried at the Cement House Cemetery , Langemark-Poelkapelle (XVII. D. 5) and is listed on the stone plaque in the porch of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.

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Postscript

Edward’s parents

• Mary Coppock died at the age of 47 and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 15 July 1923. Her address was given as 86 London Road: this is probably the house later renumbered 278 (near the present Green Road roundabout).
• Harry Coppock was still living at 278 London Road in 1947.

Edward’s sisters

• Cornelia Elizabeth Coppock (born 1903) married John Henry Stevens, a bricklayer who lived at the nearby New Inn, at Holy Trinity Church on 19 August 1926.
• Margaret Vera Coppock (born 1905) married Edward C. Sharman in the Headington registration district in the third quarter of 1929. The birth of their daughter Dawne B. Sharman was registered in the Oxford district in the third quarter of 1934.
• Edith Kate Coppock (born 1909) married Harold F. Temple in the Headington registration district in the fourth quarter of 1931.The birth of their son Roy Temple was registered in the Oxford district in the fourth quarter of 1936.