Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : 2nd Lieutenant

Army Number : 761414 (Pte)

Unit : 1/5th Bn

Biography :

William Cole was educated at Merchant Taylor's School (then in the City of London). There he was a Corporal in the OTC, was Captain of 2nd XI cricket, Captain of 3rd XV rugby, “who stuck to his side, although his personal ability fitted him for a high place in the 2nd XV pack”, and won First Prize for Modern Languages.
He undertook officer training in Southampton and arrived in France in March 1916 in the 28th (County of London, Artists Rifles) Bn The London Regiment. Later served in 1/5th Bn The Leicestershire Regiment. Awarded the M.C. (L.G. 24.9.1918 "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led a patrol in daylight to the enemy's lines, crawled through three belts of wire, surrounded, with three of his men, an enemy organised shell-hole and tried to take the sentry prisoner. The man resisted, and the noise disturbed an enemy machine-gun post close by, so they shot him for identification. Next day he again led a daylight patrol and gained valuable knowledge of the enemy's movements, locating several posts and the time at which they were manned." He died of wounds (gas) at Gorre village on 29.6.1918, aged 20. He is buried at Pernes British Cemetery, France.

During the First World War there were at one time and another seven Old Merchant Taylors serving in 5th Battalion The Leicestershire Regiment. Three were killed in action, William Maurice Cole, Percy Measures and Cyril Bernard Wilson Buck. After the war the 4 surviving officers (Godwin Edward Banwell, John David Hills, Donald Burman Petch and John Cridlan Barrett) presented a trophy to the school – The 5th Leicestershire Trophy, for Inter-House Athletic Sports Championship – to commemorate this fact. The trophy has since 1982 been presented to the School's leading rugby player.

The deeds of these seven OMTs (and others who served in the Battalion) are covered fully in the book ‘1/5th Battalion the Leicestershire Regiment in the Great War’, by Captain J. D. Hills MC (himself an OMT) which was first published in 1919. Its review in The Taylorian magazine stated,
“This book claims to be a record of the progress of a territorial battalion during the war from mobilisation to demobilisation. To say that it completely attains its object is to give it less than its due. It is in reality much more. “Mutatis mutandis”, it is an epitome of the life of any of the best territorial battalions from 1914 to 1919. The reason why the majority of books on the war are unsatisfactory and untrue is that their authors are either journalists or would-be journalists. They strive to give the public what the public is supposed to want – “purple” passages, isolated incidents, lurid and harrowing descriptions – with the result that their work is already voted stale and unprofitable. In this book the author has steadfastly resisted all temptations of “ fine writing”, he has preserved his sense of proportion throughout, and has given us a plain and unvarnished account of the daily work, the joys and sorrows, the life in the line and out of it of one of the finest battalions of the first Territorial Division to cross the Channel. It is to books like this that the student of history in days to come will turn for a true account of the doings of our hard-fighting and seldom praised County Regiments. It is a pity that there are so few of them. So much for the book in general. But to us Merchant Taylors it has a much more intimate appeal, for it gives us a glimpse of the work in France of Old Boys who, a few months before, had been working and playing beside us at the School. We read how Lieut. J. C. Barrett, V.C., “literally covered with wounds,” after disposing of three enemy machine-gun posts and their teams and overcoming the bombing-parties which assailed him, extricated his men from a perilous position before he, refusing all help, made his own way back to the Aid Post. We learn how the late Second-Lieut. W. M. Cole, M.C., accompanied by his corporal, stalked a German sentry, shot him, noted his regiment for purposes of identification, and made his way back to our line under heavy machine-gun fire – a feat well described as “a very fine piece of patrol work, calling for courage, initiative and cunning of a high degree.” This gallant young officer, whom we remember with deep affection, died of wounds ten days later, on the day on which the Military Cross was awarded him. The names “A” Company (Petch) and “ C ”Company (Banwell) have a familiar ring about them, – we note with pride that these two officers – the former thrice, the latter six times wounded – together with the author of the book, are three out of the four officers of the battalion who won the MC and bar. Finally, we deduce a great deal concerning the author himself, who sailed to France with the 5th Leicestershires, and returned to England in command of their 'cadre' in June 1919. He had during that time served throughout the war with his battalion and filled every possible place in it. We feel that he was the best man to write its history and that he could not have done it better.”

In 1920 William Cole's father, W G Cole, presented to Merchant Taylors' School an athletics cup in memory of his late son for "Championship of Classes IV and V".

This page was last edited on 7.9.2019.

Date of Birth : 31.5.1898

Place of Birth : South East London

Date of Death : 29.6.1918

Place of Death : Gorre, France

Period of Service : 1916-18

Conflicts : WW1

Places Served : France