Unfit for service as a Royal Marine
but James Cockroft showed his courage as a fireman
by
Kevin Morris
 OVER the many years I have been collecting medals I
have seen quite a few advertised on dealers' lists where the information
on the man concerned finishes with the term 'unfit for further military
service'.
But what makes a man unfit in this context? In many
cases it is self-evident, with terms such as 'worn out by military
service' or 'amputation following wounding', but what about the rest? Were
they all invalids? In many cases I suspect they led full and active lives
following their discharge.
A few years ago I bought a group of medals at a
local militaria fair. At that time I had recently expanded my collecting
to include groups to Royal Marines. The group, as it was sold, consisted
of a 1914 Star and clasp, 1914-19 War Medal, Victory Medal and a National
Fire Brigades Association Long Service Medal with Ten and Five year
clasps. It was the latter medal, which interested me, as it made a change
from the usual combinations with WW1 medals. I sent away for his Royal
Marine discharge papers and was rewarded with the following information:-
James Cockroft was born in Hunslet, Leeds on 3
March 1895; his trade on enlistment was an engine cleaner working for
Midland Railways. This was a particularly dirty job and it is not hard to
see why he chose to leave soon after he was 18 and join the services. He
enlisted into the Royal Marines at York on 22 August 1913.
He was sent to the recruits' depot, then at Deal in
Kent. While he was there he passed his 3rd Class Education Certificate on
21 October 1913 and his 2nd Class on 1 December 1913. Following his
recruit's training he was posted to the Chatham Division RMLI on 11 June
1914.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war in August
1914, the Admiralty mobilised the Royal Marine Brigade to guard against
the threat to the channel ports of Ostend, Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne,
vital lifelines in getting men and support to the BEF.
James Cockroft was posted to HMS Victory, Royal
Marine Brigade on 11 September 1914 and went with them to Ostend on 14
September 1914. He also served at Dunkirk from 20 September to 2 October.
The Royal Marine Brigade was sent with the rest of
the Royal Naval Division to Antwerp on 3 October 1914 at the request of
Winston Churchill who saw the port as more threatened than Ostend. The
German Army crossed the Upper Scheldt, forcing the Belgian Field Army to
withdraw. This made the defence of Antwerp untenable and the Naval
Division, including the Royal Marine Brigade, was withdrawn. Unfortunately
delays resulted in many of the division having to cross the border into
Holland where they were interned for the rest of the war. The Chatham
battalion served in the abortive defence of the port until withdrawn
successfully on 9 October. This qualified Cockroft for the 1914 Star and
clasp.
He served in England after the retreat from Antwerp
until 7 February 1915 when he was posted to the Mediterranean
Expeditionary Force for service in the Dardanelles.
The Chatham battalion did not take part in the
initial landings but landed at Anzac on 28 April 1915 to take over the
centre of the line. Cockroft served in Gallipoli until 25 October 1915.
The Royal Marine Brigade was heavily engaged in the Gallipoli landings and
subsequent campaign.
Cockroft was wounded by a gunshot to the right hand
and wrist on 7 May 1915. This resulted in him being evacuated by hospital
ship to Alexandria. He eventually rejoined his battalion on 30 July. He
served on the Gallipoli peninsular until he was injured again in September
1915, this time being evacuated to Malta on the hospital ship Ausonia, and
later back to England.
He was posted from the Middle East back to Chatham
where he stayed until 29 February 1916. He then embarked in the cruiser
HMS Lancaster on 1 March 1916, and served on her until transferred to
HMS
President on 8 February 1917.
Cockroft was on the books of HMS President until
posted back to Chatham on 23 March 1919. He was presented with his 1914
Star and clasp on 27 July 1919 and later with the 1914-19 War and Victory
Medals, together with a silver wound badge.
He was discharged invalided from the Royal Marines
on 24 September 1919. The cause of his discharge was given as the result
of the wound he suffered at Gallipoli. His address on discharge was 15
Askern Street, Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds.
The reason James Cockroft was invalided from the
Royal Marines could not have been very serious as he was back into uniform
within three weeks, although this time it was as a policeman.
I contacted Mr David Stevens, the British Fire
Services Association Secretary, who was very helpful, and found the award
dates for James Cockroft's National Fire Brigades Association Medal and
clasps. It was also confirmed that he did not reach the 20 years to
qualify him for the silver medal.
There the matter lay for the next few years until a
friend of mine, a retired police officer, mentioned he was doing research
into Leeds City Police and had access to some of their archive material.
Was it possible that James Cockroft's records were available? They were -
and a great surprise they were, too.
Cockroft joined Leeds City Police as probationer PC
94 on 10 October 1919; his starting pay was £3 10s 0d per week (£3.50) His
appointment was confirmed on 9 January 1920 when his pay went up six
shillings a week to £3 16s 0d (£3.80).
At that time Leeds City Police also manned the fire
service and Cockroft went into that branch, being posted to E Division
(Fire Brigade). He was what was known in those days as 'Fire Bobby'.
Kelly's Directory for Leeds 1921 shows him living at 4 Oxford Row, and
describes him as a police fireman.
In 1924 he was injured when the fire engine in
which he was travelling to a warehouse fire was involved in a collision
with a bus, overturning and injuring most of the crew. I managed to find a
cutting from the local paper which gave me a photograph (none too clear)
of PC Cockroft.
He was clearly intent on advancement as in April
1924 he passed Part 1 of his Sergeant's Exams, and followed this up in
February 1925 with Part 2. There is no evidence that he ever was promoted.
He was granted First Class Fire Pay on 1 May 1925, which brought him up to
£4 8s 0d a week (£4.40), and in 1926 was granted a further increment of
two shillings a day to bring him up to £4 10s 0d (£4.50)
He was awarded the National Fire Brigades
Association Bronze Long Service Medal on 13 December 1929 with ten-year
clasp.
On 5 February 1930 he was awarded the Society for
the Protection of Life from Fire Bronze Medal 'For gallantry displayed in
rescuing a young child from a dwelling house on fire'. The fire occurred
on 26 November 1929 at 18 Deighton Street, Leeds, when together with
Charles Bogg and Thomas McBride, both described as labourers, Cockroft
entered a blazing house to rescue Alice Sergeson, aged 23, and her
six-week-old baby. The fire was started when clothing was ignited by a
domestic fire. All three rescuers were rewarded with the bronze medal with
certificate and a guinea each.
He gained a further award from the Society on 26
March 1931 when he earned the Certificate of the Society for the
Protection of Life from Fire 'for gallantry in rescuing four females from
a dwelling house on fire'. In this case the fire was on 5 November 1930 at
161 North Street Leeds, cause unknown. Chief Inspector John Taylor was
awarded the Society's silver medal with certificate, and PCs Cockroft,
William Faulkner, Edward Burfield and E Pearson were all awarded
certificates for rescuing Fanny Rooms (53), Esther Levin (36), Sybil Levin
(12) and Elsie Thompson (18).
On 12 September 1932 he had the distinction of
being one of only two people awarded a second award bar to his Society for
the Protection of Life from Fire bronze medal 'for bravery displayed in
entering a burning house and rescuing three children, who unfortunately
subsequently succumbed to their injuries'.
This fire was on 26 April 1932 at 32 High Street
Halton, Leeds, cause again unknown. Cockroft, together with George W Baker
and William H Baldridge, rescued Nellie Connell (11) and her sister
Margaret (6) and brother Alfred (5). Cockroft was awarded a second award
bar and his fellow rescuers bronze medals.
I am indebted to Mr. E. H. Gledhill of the Society
for the Protection of Life from Fire for letting me have the details of
the awards.
By coincidence the only other second award bar also
went to a policeman, in this case William Croxall, a London policeman who
was awarded a bronze medal on 9 June 1900. A subsequent act of gallantry
on 12 August 1905 gained him a silver bar.
Cockroft was awarded a further five-year clasp to
his bronze National Fire Brigades Association Medal for his 15 years'
service on 11 January 1935.
He suffered quite a few minor injuries in the
course of his duties, an occupational hazard for many in the emergency
services who have high-risk occupations. Eventually his luck ran out and
he was seriously injured on duty on 18 August 1935, as a result of which
he was absent from work for nearly seven months with concussion and
complications.
He was injured again on 28 March 1936 shortly after
returning to work, once more with a head injury. This time it was another
four months before he could return to active duty. He never fully
recovered and in September 1936 was absent again, which his records show
was due to 'nervous symptoms following fracture to the skull'.
Cockroft was pensioned from the Fire Service on 9
November 1936 'in consequence of injuries received on duty'. He had served
just over 17 years as a Fire Bobby and he was granted a pension of £217
13s 8d a year. (£217.68)
Although invalided from the Royal Marines in 1919,
he managed a further 17 years of what must have been an active and fairly
stressful occupation, and earned no fewer than three awards for gallantry
during this time.
Unfortunately I have not been able to trace any
further details of Cockroft's life, nor have I been able to find if his
missing medal and bar still exist. I would certainly be interested in
making contact with anyone who knows its whereabouts.
Nearer to home my grandfather managed to get
invalided out of two of the services. He joined the Royal Marines in
January 1918 but was invalided out in 1921 following a motorcycle
accident.
He succeeded in joining the Territorial Army in
1939 - 6th Btn. the Green Howards - and was invalided as 'unfit for
further military service' after the Dunkirk evacuation. He still managed
to live to 84 years of age, but that's another story...
The moral of James Cockroft's story is that just
because a man's records show him being unfit for military service, it does
not make him an invalid. There were many, like Cockroft, who may have been
discharged on medical grounds but who led more active and eventful lives
than many 'able bodied' servicemen.
Sources
-
Public Records Office
-
Society for the Protection of Life from Fire
-
British Fire Services Association
-
Britain's Sea Soldiers Vol. 3 1914-1919, by General
Sir H. E. Blumberg
-
Medals of the Society for the Protection of Life
from Fire, by Robert W Gould
(c)
2003 |
