Private 2813 Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 2nd Bn. Died 26-September-1917 aged 36

Son of Charles and Eleanor Couchman. Charles and Eleanor, nee Seymour, were married in the 2nd Qtr of 1879 and the marriage was registered at Kensington. The 1881 census shows them living at 52 Castle Street, St Giles In The Fields. At that time Charles was a Brewers Servant.

Park Cottage is shown in the centre of this photograph and is now a grade II listed building.

Their son,Charles Edward Couchman was born on the 18th March 1882 and his birth was registered at St Giles South in the County of Middlesex. The 1891 census shows Charles Edward aged 9 as a Scholar.

Sometime between 1891 and 1901 it would appear that Charles Edward Couchman left England and went to live in Ireland. His father Charles died, and his mother Eleanor remarried in 1894. Her second husband was Frederick Davis.

The 1901 census shows Eleanor and Frederick living at Park Road Cottage Banstead with two of Eleanor’s children from her first marriage and another two children that she had with Frederick.

On the 7th June 1904 Charles Edward Couchman married Mary Anne Coyle in Ballyshannon in the county of Donegal. His profession is given as 'Soldier' and it is very likely that he served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers an Irish infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1881. The regiment recruited mainly from the counties of Donegal, Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh in Ireland, with its garrison depot located at Omagh.

The birth certificate for Charles' and Mary's daughter Bridget, born on the 16th January 1916, does show Charles Edward as a soldier of the 4th Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Just twenty months later, on the 26th September 1917, Private Charles Edward Couchman died whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Charles Edward was the second son in the family to die during WWl as his step brother Frederick George Davis died two years earlier, in September 1915. Thus both brothers are listed on the Banstead War Memorial.

Frederick and Eleanor were still in Banstead but had moved to Dehra Doon in Lyme Regis Road.

Wood panel All Saints Church Banstead.

Garton Memorial All Saints churchyard Banstead

Grave Reference: IV. B. 21.

COXYDE MILITARY CEMETERY Koksijde, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Cemetery Photos courtesy of Des Cronin.
Family research by Christine Kent.
All Saints Church Memorial Banstead (shows 25th September 1917).

Last updated 12 August 2008
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Edward, was born Edward James Seal C1873 and was baptised at Carshalton Parish Church on 22 July 1873. His mother Harriet Seal, was unmarried at the time although an Edward Cross was lodging with the Seal family from 1871. They were married in 1875 so it's probably reasonable to assume that Edward Cross senior, was the father. This also explains why the young Edward was called Jasper. He and two other children born before the marriage assumed the name Cross.

Edward belonged to the 341st Motor Company of the Army Service Corps.

The British Army was the most mechanised of all in the Great War, when it came to using motor vehicles for transport. A large total of ASC Mechanical Transport Companies existed at some time in the war, in various categories such as the ASC MT Companies in the Divisional Supply Columns. No. 341 ASC MT Company was one of those allotted as Divisional Ammunition Parks. These companies called Ammunition Parks operated dumps, or stores, of ammunition including the larger calibres of artillery shells which required special handling equipment, smaller shells, mortar rounds, grenades and small arms ammunition too. ASC 341 MT Coy as part of the 23rd Division saw service in France.

The Division took responsibility for a front line sector between Ferme Grande Flamengrie to the Armentieres-Wez Macquart road. CIII and CV Brigades RFA were attached to 8th Division for operations in connection with the Battle of Loos. At this time, 23rd Division was holding the front at Bois Grenier where it remained for some considerable time. The Division was relieved after a lengthy five-month spell in the front line, between 26 January and 8 February 1916. Divisional HQ was eventually established at Blaringhem and the units concentrated around Bruay.

On 3 March 1916 orders were received to relieve the French 17th Division in the Carency sector. The front to be held was between the Boyau de l'Ersatz and the Souchez River, including the posts on the Notre Dame de Lorette hill behind. Artillery was positioned in the area Carency - Ablain St Nazaire - Bois de Bouvigny, an exposed position in which it was subject to severe shelling.

Edward probably did not make it that far as his death certificate shows that he died on 8 March 1916 in the Military Hospital, Sidney Hall, Weymouth, Dorset, of Bronchial Pneumonia and Cardiac Failure. The family address at the time of his death was Well House, Banstead, and the Banstead War Memorial was to be erected just five years later within a few yards of the perimeter wall of this large property.

Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey.
personal details from Alan Cross.
ASC MT history from http://www.1914-1918.net/ASC_MT.htm
23rd Division history from http://www.1914-1918.net/23div.htm
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