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Captain Roy Grote CORDINER MC
No. 3 Company, 8th (Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment Date of birth: 9th February 1897 Date of death: 4th October 1917 Killed in action aged 20 Commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel 35 to 37 and162 to 162A
Roy Grote Cordiner was born at Great Malvern in Worcestershire on the 9th of February 1897 the son of the Reverend Robert Charles Cordiner MA and Josephine Grote (nee Inglis) Cordiner of Loumay in Aberdeenshire. On her husband's death Josephine remarried to Alexander John Burt and they lived at “Honiton”, Stein Road, Emsworth in Hampshire. He was educated at Malvern Dame’s School and at Lancing College where he was in Seconds House from September 1911 to July 1914. He gained his School Certificate in 1914. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps where he achieved Certificate A and attended three annual camps from 1912 to 1914. Following the outbreak of war he applied for a commission in the infantry on the 17th of August 1914 in an application which was supported by the Reverend Bowlby, Headmaster of Lancing College and by Mr. H.A.E. Marshall, Principal of Wykeham House School, Worthing. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Regiment on the 21st of September 1914. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of January 1915. He landed at Boulogne with his battalion on the 10th of September 1915 and was promoted to temporary Captain on the 27th of September 1915. By January 1916 he was Officer Commanding No. 3 Company. On the 1st of July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, the 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was detailed to attack the German positions at the village of Fricourt. They formed the second wave of the attack in support of the 8th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry. The Somersets advanced at 7.30am losing half their number to the hail of machine gun fire which poured into their ranks. Despite this they managed to take the first German line and moved towards their second objective. The Lincolns followed them with B and C Companies leading and D Company following. The leading platoons also lost half their number and as the Lincolns arrived at the German first line they were checked by heavy machine gun fire but their bombers managed to destroy the enemy posts and bombed their way along the communication trenches "Dart Lane" and "Brandy Trench". As they moved along the enemy trench they bombed and destroyed the enemy dugouts with bombs and high explosive. At this point in the action enemy artillery began firing on the supporting waves as they crossed No Man's Land and they suffered many casualties. They then held and consolidated these positions, beating off an enemy bombing attack from the direction of Fricourt later in the day. They were relieved at 2am on the 4th of July. Casualties during the action were four officers killed, (including 2nd Lieutenant John Francis Cragg OL), one missing and seven wounded. Thirty other ranks were killed with thirty four missing and one hundred and seventy one wounded. For his actions that day he was awarded the Military Cross which was announced in the London Gazette of the 22nd of September 1916. The citation reads:- “For conspicuous gallantry in action. Though wounded he continued to lead his company in the attack till a second time wounded severely in the face.” On the 3rd of October 1917 the 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment moved forward for an attack the following morning on the enemy line situated on a ridge to the east of Zonnebeke, to the south of the Menin Road, as part of the Battle of Broodseinde. AT 6am on the 4th of October they leapt from their trenches and after an advance of some 100 yards they were subjected to a "murderous" machine gun fire from the German first line where an estimated 100 defenders still held the line. The machine gun fire coupled with local counter attacks meant that the attack failed with casualties among the Lincolns of five officers killed, three officers wounded with one hundred and seventy six other ranks killed, wounded or missing. Roy Cordiner was among the dead. His mother received the following telegram dated the 9th of October 1917: - "Deeply regret to inform you Captain R.G. Cordiner MC 8th Lincolns was killed in action October four. The Army Council express sympathy." A brother officer wrote:- “I should like to express to you my very great appreciation and admiration of Roy, who was, not only my best friend in the regiment, but one of the most gallant officers I have ever known. Although so young he was an exceptionally capable officer, and the efficient, thoughtful and cool manner in which he commanded his company under all circumstances won for him the admiration of all his brother officers and the almost idolised devotion of the men under his command. Although wounded in an early stage of the recent action in which the regiment took part, he refused to leave his men and went on till he was shot through the head by a sniper. His winning personality made for him friends innumerable and we all mourn his loss very deeply, and can only judge your sorrow by our own.” In all he was wounded three times. His mother applied for his medals in December 1921. He is commemorated on the Rathen war memorial in Aberdeenshire

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