Category: Military
Rank: Lance Corporal 265996
Regiment or Ship: Bedfordshire Regiment and Suffolk Regiment R.A.S.C. M.T
Service Number(s): 3113, 265996, 417371
Occupation: School pupil (in 1911 census)
Date of Birth: 1896
Place of Birth: Burgess Hill, Sussex
Date of Death: Not known
Place of Death: Nor known
Place of Burial / Memorials:
Not known
Address: 15 Beaconsfield Road, Bexhill
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
No record of Edward Harold Coppard ever marrying has been found.
Parents: George Coppard, born in 1850 in West Hoathly, Sussex and Ellen Elizabeth Baker, born 1851 in East Grinstead, Sussex. They were married in East Grinstead, in late 1874.
Siblings:
George Coppard born 1871, in West Hoathly, Sussex. W0188 COPPARD George
Ellen (Nellie) Coppard born 1874, in West Hoathly, Sussex.
Sarah Ann Coppard born 1877, in West Hoathly, Sussex.
William John Coppard born 1879, in Forest Row, Sussex. W0190 COPPARD William John
Thomas Henry Coppard born 1884, in Battle, Sussex. W0189 COPPARD Thomas Henry
Albert Victor Coppard 12th March 1887 and baptized on 3rd Jul 1887, in Ripe, Sussex. W0186 COPPARD Albert Victor
Mabel Jane Co.ppard born 1889, in Lewes, Sussex.
Edith Coppard born 1893, in Lewes, Sussex.
No children, and no direct descendents, of Edward have been found.
First World War Experience
Some of Edward’s service records have survived but, due to the fading of the sometimes poor writing, they are difficult to read and understand.
On enlistment, he joined the 6th Battalion Suffolk Regiment (Regimental Number 3113) at Hastings but his medical examination took place at Bexhill.
He was called up for service on 14th October 1916 and posted to 2/6th Suffolk Regiment on the same day.
On 17th November 1917, he was appointed paid Acting Corporal with the 2/6th Cyclist Battalion Suffolk Regiment.
In 1918, on 26th April, he was posted to the 14th Battalion Suffolk Regiment but then, eight months later, transferred on 6th December to the Army Service Corps (M.T.) at their depot in Sydenham.
Almost at the end of the war, he joined the Isleworth A.S.C.M.T. on the 25th April 1919, where, on 4th June, he passed his learner’s test as a heavy lorry driver.
On the 25th September 1919, he was, officially, reprimanded for failing to comply with an order. This seems to have been his only misconduct. The report says, “Failure to comply with an order given by a superior officer i.e. when ordered to proceed on escort duty to No. 1 M. T. reserve depot Grove Park at 0900 hours on 22/9/1919 failed to report there until 10.40 hours on 23/9/1919. Punishment – reprimanded.”
He was demobilized on 22nd November 1919 and transferred to Class “Z2.
Throughout his time in the forces, he had had three regimental numbers but he began with 3113 and that also appears on his demobilization papers.
NOTE “MT” = Mechanical Transport and A.S.C.M.T. = Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport.
Newspaper_Extracts The_Coppard_Brothers
Additional Information
According to his medical report, he was 5ft 8 1/2” tall, with an expanded chest size of 33”.
His physical development was noted as being fair, his “heart irritable”, his lungs weak, and he was undersize as “regards chest”.
Note. An “irritable heart” was the name given to what seems to have been symptoms of stress – today it’s known as the “Da Costa’s Syndrome”, after Jacob Mendes Da Costa, a doctor who investigated and described the disorder during the American Civil War. It was also known as the “Soldier’s Heart”.