Name
Horace Charles Bowman Cottam (MC)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/09/1918
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Royal Hampshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Military Cross
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOWRIE CEMETERY, HAVRINCOURT
Row A, Grave 15.
France
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour,
Cambridge Guildhall Roll of Honour, Ely
War Memorial, Cambridgeshire,
Harrow School War Memorial, Middlesex,
Wilton War Memorial, Wiltshire
Pre War
Son of the late Horace James and Mary (nee BOWMAN) COTTAM of Harlesden, London; husband of Elsie Florence (nee JONES) of Cambridge.
His parents married 1885 in the Brighton, Sussex, district. Mary died 12 December 1891 in Watford aged 42, and was buried 17 December at St Mary’s, Watford; Horace died 1912 in the Wandsworth, London district aged 71.
Horace was born 1891 in Watford, and educated at Harrow School, Middx, and Caius College, Cambridge; B.A. Cambridge. He married 1914 in the Ely, Cambs, district. Elsie remarried 1927 in the King’s Lynn, Norfolk, district to Eustace D BATESON, and died 23 February 1981 in the King’s Lynn district aged 88.
He has an entry in the National Probate Calendar.
On the 1891 Census, aged 3 months he lived in Brighton, with his parents and one sibling. On the 1901 Census, aged 10 he lived in Harlesden, with his widowed father and two siblings. On the 1911 Census, a student aged 20, he was a visitor in Boscombe, Dorset.
Wartime Service
He was gazetted to the Hampshire Regiment December 1915. and went to France in October 1916. He was invalided home 22 October 1916 aboard H.S. St George suffering from Dysentery and jaundice, and subsequently rejoined his old Battalion as Assistant-Adjutant.
He was promoted Lieutenant Nivember 1917, and in the following month went to Palestine, where he saw much fighting with the 2nd/4th Hants, 75th Division, which was afterwards sent to France and took part in the fighting on the Marne in the offensive oh July 20th 1918 between Soissons and Rheims.
On July 30th 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross. He came to England on his first leave September 5th, returning to France on the 19th, and was killed by a sniper at Marcoing.
He was entitled to the Victory and British War medals.
Additional Information
There is an article about and a Death announcement for Horace in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 12 October 1918. There are also articles in the Cambridge Daily News and the Cambridge Independent Press both dated 11 October 1918.
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
