Percy Coates

Percy Coates was born in Dore on 1st May 1898 and baptised on 15th March 1899. He was the youngest of the four sons of Henry Philip Coates and his wife Sarah, of Causeway Head Farm, Dore; a daughter, Emily, had died in infancy. Henry, a farmer, had been born into a farming family in Dore in 1858; Sarah, neé Redhead, was a labourer’s daughter from Bulwick in Northamptonshire.

Percy attended Dore School from 30th June 1902 to 26th May 1911. He was only 16 when war was declared, but in January 1916, the Military Services Act imposed conscription on all single men aged 18 to 41 (with exemptions for those in essential wartime employment, those deemed medically unfit, religious ministers, and conscientious objectors). Percy therefore enlisted on 1st May 1916 – his 18th birthday - although he was not called up for military service until 16th November 1916.

When Percy was enrolled, at Chesterfield on 16th November, he was only 5’ 4” tall, and weighed 147 pounds, but his eyesight was good and his teeth were fair, and he was passed as medically class A and fit for general service. The official form states that he was 18 years and 7 months old, although he was in fact a couple of weeks short of that. One form records his occupation as a farm labourer, while another states that he was a trammer in a ganister mine.

As Percy’s parents had both died in 1913, he named two of his three brothers as his next of kin: Albert, whose address was given as care of Albert Denneff (sic) of Dore Hall Farm, and Philip Sidney, who was still living at Causeway Head Farm. He gave his own address as c/o Joseph Marsden, Dore.

Although he expressed a preference to serve in the Royal Field Artillery, Percy was assigned as a Private to the 5th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters (the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment). He was posted to France on 30th July 1917. He then seems to have joined the 2/8th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters on 28th August 1917, and to have been posted to the 2/6th Battalion on 11th March 1918. All of these battalions were in origin Territorial battalions, and this may be reflected in the earlier Regimental numbers recorded for Percy (T66532 and T6816), although his final number was 203154.

The 2/6th Battalion’s war diary records that, on 21st March 1918, it was under very heavy enemy barrage between 5 and 9.30 am, followed by an enemy attack at 9.30, and suffered very heavy casualties. Percy was among those reported missing on that day. He was presumed dead, and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial at Faubourg-D'Amiens Cemetery, Arras. He is also commemorated on his family’s gravestone in Dore churchyard, which correctly records his age at death as 19; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s records inaccurately state that he was 21.

Percy left a will naming Joe Marsden and Joseph Marshall as his executors. Joseph Marshall, a highways surveyor, was related to Percy by marriage: his wife Rosanna (neé Coates), who had died in 1897, was Percy’s paternal grandmother’s sister. In 1911, Joseph, aged 71, was living at Greenwood Mount with his housekeeper, Ellen Coates - his niece by marriage, and thus also a relative of Percy’s. Joe Marsden, a building contractor, was living with his family in nearby Jesmond Villas; his son William had been at Dore School with Percy. However, curiously, a document dated 3rd October 1920 states that any personal effects relating to Percy should be sent to Mr J Marshall and Mr J Marsden c/o J Wolstenholme, Hathersage. Joe Marsden signed for receipt of Percy’s Victory and British War Medals on 15th July 1922.