George Edward Cotterell

Lieutenant George Cotterell and his younger brother John, were regulars for Claremont teams in the years leading up to the war. Both enlisted and received commissions as officers. George married Edith Rann on 26 May 1917 and left for the front two months later. He was wounded in action in Dernacourt, France, receiving a gunshot wound to his foot, left leg and chest on 9 April 1918. Cotterell rejoined his unit on 28 August 1918 and fought in one of his Battalion’s final actions in WW1, to support the Allies in their attempt to breakthrough the Beaurevoir Line in October. He was killed in action on 3 October 1918, hit in the head by bullets from machine gun whilst on the road passing Mt. St. Quentin. A few month earlier, his younger brother John had been invalided home with permanent deafness from a shell burst.