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

Richard COPPOCK (1896–1918)

Richard Coppock was born in Newton, near Hyde in Cheshire in 1896, the son of Tom Coppock (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 22 September 1867) and Ann Clowes (born in Newton, Cheshire in 1868, registered Ashton-under-Lyne district in second quarter).

His parents were married in the Ashton-under-Lyne registration district in the second quarter of 1895 and had three children:

• Richard Coppock (born in Newton, Cheshire in 1896, registered registered Ashton-under-Lyne second quarter)
• Cicely Coppock (born in Newton, Cheshire in 1897, registered Ashton-under-Lyne third quarter)
• Alice Ada Coppock (born in Newton, Cheshire in 1899, registered Ashton-under-Lyne second quarter).

Richard’s father grew up in Headington Quarry, and can be seen there at the age of 13 in the 1881 census with his widower father Richard (50) and his sister Harriet (16). By the time of the 1891 census, when he was 23, he was lodging in Crompton, Lancashire, where he was working as a bricklayer. It was here he met his future wife, Ann Clowes, who in 1881 was living with her family at Newton, near Hyde and working as a cotton twister.

The couple settled in Newton after their marriage and the 1901 census shows them living at 110 Old Road there with Richard (4), Cicely (3), and Alice Ada (1). Meanwhile Richard’s grandfather, also called Richard, was still living in Headington. He died there at the age of 78 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church on 16 December 1908.

By the time of the 1911 census Richard (15) had himself moved down to Headington and was a grocer’s assistant lodging in Quarry High Street with his father’s sister, Harriet Elizabeth Shepherd (née Coppock) and her husband Joseph Shepherd, who was a builder’s labourer: they had two sons of their own a little older than Richard. Meanwhile Richard’s parents were still living in Newton with his two sisters: Cicely (14) was at work in an envelope factory, and Alice Ada (11) was at school.

In the First World War Richard Coppock served as a Private in the 1st/6th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment (Service No. 351720). He was killed in action in France at the age of 22 on 20 October 1918, very near the end of the war.

He is buried at the Belle Vue British Cemetery in Briastre (A. 20) and is listed on the stone plaque in the porch of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.

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Postscript

Richard’s uncle and aunt

• Joseph Shepherd died on 23 October 1938 at the age of 79 and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard.
• Mrs Harriet Shepherd died on 28 May 1944 at the age of 79, and was buried with her husband.

Richard’s parents

• Tom Coppock died at the age of 69 (death registered in the Stockport district fourth quarter of 1936)
• Ann Coppock is probably the woman of that name whose death at the age of 86 was registered in the Hyde district in the third quarter of 1954.

Richard’s sister

• Cicely Coppock married Andrew McGraw in the Ashton-under-Lyne district in the first quarter of 1923. They had two children registered in the Stockport district: Ronald McGraw (1923, third quarter) and Kenneth McGraw (1926, third quarter), and one in the Manchester North district: Joyce McGraw (1930, first quarter).