Private Frederick Cole (42272)

Frederick Cole, was in Stoke Orchard, Glos and joined the Gloucestershire Regiment ^[1] at Tewkesbury. At this time he gave his home as Quinnell, Tewkesbury. There is no mention of him at Malvern Link, but he may have worked there and perhaps lodged; or a Frederick Cole may have died due to the effects of war and been added to the roll, which wasn’t constructed until 1946, at a later date.

The villages around Tincourt were occupied by British troops in March, 1917, during the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line ^[2]; and from the following May until March, 1918, Tincourt became a centre for Casualty Clearing Stations. On the 23rd March, 1918, the villages were evacuated; and they were recovered, in a ruined condition, about the 6th September. From that month to December, 1918, Casualty Clearing Stations were again posted on the site of Tincourt. The cemetery ^[3] was begun in June, 1917, and used until September, 1919; the few German burials, during their occupation of the village, are in Plot VI, Row A. After the Armistice it was used for the reburial of soldiers found on the battlefield, or buried in small French or German cemeteries. The graves of 136 American soldiers, buried here in the autumn of 1918, and one who died in December, 1917, and those of two Italian soldiers have been removed to other cemeteries. There are now nearly 2,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 250 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to seven soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Australia, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 21 soldiers from the United Kingdom, two from Canada, one from Australia and one from South Africa, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery covers an area of 6,149 square metres.