Royal Army Medical Corps
Lewis Alfred Cox was a farm labourer conscript who ended up contracting a disease which led to his discharge and ultimate death, having spent only four months on active service.
He was born in Deerhurst in August 1880, one of six children born to Thomas Cox (1840-1919) a farm labourer and his wife Emma (née Bliss; 1842-1927). Only four of those children were surviving by the time of the 1911 census. Lewis was baptised in the Parish Church at Deerhurst on 14 November 1880.
He appears to have lived all his time in Deerhurst or nearby Apperley, prior to joining the Army and he followed in his father’s footsteps as a farm labourer.
Fortunately, an Army Service Record has survived for Lewis. This shows that he was conscripted on 2 March 1916, under the Military Service Act of that year. However, he was not mobilised until 28 July 1917, when he declared his residence to be Apperley, near Tewkesbury, his age 36 years and 11 months and his occupation ‘bricklayer’s labourer’. He spent about six weeks in basic training before being posted to France on 11 September 1917, initially, it would appear, to a cyclists’ unit at Rouen. His service papers are not clear when he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps presence at No 25 General Hospital, at Hardelot in the Pas de Calais. Having initially been a hospital for British troops, it had been taken over by the Australians on 1 August 1917. Lewis worked there until he was sent back to England, on the hospital ship Jan Breydel, on 13 October 1917. He was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, a condition he may well have had when mobilised but had been aggravated by military service. He was sent to Windsor Street Auxilliary Hospital at Liverpool. Discharge from the Army, as ‘no longer fit for war service’ followed on 21 November 1917. His discharge papers indicate he was of good character and totally incapacitated. He never left the Windsor Road hospital and died there, aged 37, on 9 December 1917. His papers note, sadly, ‘no relatives present’.
He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Deerhurst, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is commemorated on the War Memorial plaque inside the church. His father appears to have died in the year following the Armistice. A recently released Army Pension Record notes his dependent to be his mother, who was living at Grabb Lane, Apperley
Researched by Graham Adams 3 January 2021