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Edward Cohen

Second Lieutenant Edward Cohen, MC was an English soldier of the British Army who died during the First World War.

He was born in 1895, at Hackney, the son of Dutch-born school master Maurice and Sara Cohen (née Alexander), of London. At the time of the 1911 Census, the Cohen family were residing at 65 St Thomas Street.

Cohen died on 31 July 1917, mortally wounded on the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, while serving with the 12th Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). His battalion sustained heavy casualties in its advance, amounting to nine officers and 170 other ranks killed, wounded, or missing.[1] In August, Cohen was awarded a posthumous Military Cross, the citation for which read:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led his platoon with great determination and skill, under heavy machine-gun fire, against enemy dug-outs, which he successfully bombed, taking prisoners and capturing the machine gun. He has previously done very fine work.[2]

He has no known grave and is commemorated by the Menin Gate Memorial.

Notes[]

  1. The Royal fusiliers in the great war, pp. 184-6.
  2. The London Gazette (30234), p. 8361. 16 August 1917. Retrieved 13 August 2013.

References[]

  • Ancestry.co.uk.
  • Cohen, Edward, cwgc.org. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
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