Lieutenant Charles Mervyn Jeffreys COOTE
B Company, 1/1st Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion attached to the 1/4th (City of Bristol) Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Date of birth: 24th June 1891
Date of death: 31st May 1973

Died aged 81
Unknown
Charles Mervyn Jeffreys Coote was born at Fen Stanton in Cambridgeshire on the 24th of June 1891 the only son of Charles Harold Coote, a coal merchant, and Edith (nee Davis) Coote of Houghton Grange in Huntingdonshire.

He was educated at Hazelwood School until December 1904 where he was a member of the Football XI in 1904. The school magazine wrote the following of his season that year: - "(Half back) - Plucky and energetic, rather prone to wild kicking, must learn to aid his full back by "keeping off"."

He went on to Eton College where he was in A.B. Ramsay and C.H. Allcock’s Houses from January 1905 to July 1909. He went on to Hertford College Oxford in 1910 where he was Cox of the College boat in 1913.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion on the 28th of August 1914 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of March 1915. On the 1st of July 1916 he transferred to the Gloucestershire Regiment with the rank of Lieutenant, with seniority from the 1st of March 1915 and was posted to the 1/4th Battalion of his regiment.

On the 22nd of July 1916 the 1/4th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment relieved the 6th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment in trenches at Ovillers on the Somme. The relief was completed by 3.30pm with B and C Companies positioned in the front line with D Company in support. The 6th Battalion were being redeployed in order to make an attack on nearby enemy positions which was to be made at 2.30am the next morning with the 1/4th Battalion in support. The attack began at the appointed time and C Company of the 1/4th Battalion pushed forward to take the two enemy positions of Point 28 and Point 47. As they advanced they found that the enemy trench in front of Point 47 had been obliterated by the supporting bombardment but that enemy resistance at Point 28 was considerable with the resulting bombing fight lasting through the night with the company bombers advancing bay by bay up the enemy front line. At 6am the news was received that the 6th Battalion's attack had failed and so the bombing attacks were stopped and A Company relieved C Company. At 7.30am 145 Brigade attacked on the battalion's right and A Company renewed the bombing attacks in support of them. Shortly afterwards the fighting died down and the remainder of the day was described as quiet.

Charles Coote had been captured during the fighting and was officially reported as missing the following day. He was initially held at the prisoner of war camp at Gütersloh, Westphalia before being transferred to the officer's camp at Crefeld on the 5th of September 1916. His parents received a telegram dated the 6th of November 1917 informing them that he was being transferred to the newly opened Offizierlager at Holzminden, the largest of its type in Germany. Following the armistice he was repatriated to the UK on the 22nd of November 1918.

On leaving the army he joined his father's coal business, Coote and Warren, Coal Merchants and Factors of St Ives where he rose to be Managing Director.

He served as Mayor of St Ives, Cambridgeshire in 1930 and was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire on the 3rd of June 1952. He also served as a Justice of the Peace. He died at Houghton in Huntingdonshire.

Went on to Eton College

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