Soldier Record

My Grandfather joined the army as a regular soldier in 1909, he was to be apprenticed to a butcher but decided to follow in his father's footsteps and joined the 4th Battalion Rifle Brigade (Prince Consorts Own) in Hampshire. After training he joined the Battalion in Egypt and from there they went to India. He was in the Royal Military Police within the Regiment.

Rifleman John Cooley was proud to serve his King and country .

At the declaration of war in 1914 the Battalion was recalled to England and they left the heat of India arriving back in December to endure the freezing cold of an exceptionally cold early winter. The Battalion were sent from Plymouth where they disembarked to Winchester where a great expeditionary force was assembling. This massive coalition of regular soldiers was formed into the 27th Division, their camp just outside of Winchester was mainly tented and they had to endure the cold equipped only in their tropical uniforms. Eventually things became more organised and proper uniforms arrived. They were marched from Winchester to Southampton where they embarked for the Western Front.

The 27th Division were present at the second battle for Ypres, they were held in reserve until ordered to move forward to support the Canadians who were being ripped apart by the german army. On one terrifying day they faced a new weapon of war, gas, the germans waited for suitable weather before releasing the very first gas attack. The gas drifted across the trenches in a green cloud, nobody had seen this before and did not know what it was let alone how it would affect them. The choking clouds of gas entered the lungs and created what appeared to the nursing staff at the overwhelmed dressing stations as the final stages of pneumonia. Hundreds of men, and civillian women and children were affected since they had no protection against this new form of warfare. John Cooley was gassed and he suffered from that experience all his life.

Those men of the 27th Division who survived the battle for Ypres were then reformed and proceeded to reinforce the troops at the battle of the Somme. John Cooley was wounded here, we don't know the extent of his wound but believe it was in the leg. His injury was severe enough for him to be brought back to England where he slowly recovered. However, the extent of his injuries and the effects of the gas attack meant that his war was over. He was sent to a Convalescent Hospital where he slowly recovered and eventually returned home. He was given a silver war badge to show that he had served his country and which he wore with pride despite the suffering he had endured.

He had two brothers, his elder brother was in the Navy and was killed in a submarine in 1918. His younger brother Edward was also in the Rifle Brigade and survived the war to continue as a regular soldier. John Cooley was a reservist and supported the British Legion and the Rifle Brigade Association all his life and the family was proud to see him carry the British Legion standard at the Royal Albert Hall.

The greatest sadness was that nobody appreciated just how much suffering he, and thousands like him, had endured. The returning men did not talk about what they had seen and the hardships they had endured. They were prepared to sacrifice everything to secure a better future for their families and generations to come.

We shall remember them.