Herbert Coldrick was born on the 28th of March 1897, the sixth child of John & Annie Maria Coldrick (nee Bishop).
Before Herbert was born, his family was living with Annie Maria's mother in number 38 Load Street, Bewdley. As the family grew, John, Annie Marie and the children moved out – but they didn’t stray too far. They moved next door to number 39 Load Street, and it was here that Herbert was born. In 1905, Herbert started his schooling at nearby Wribbenhall First School.
Herbert’s father John was a building contractor, and he was supported in this trade by his oldest son John, who was a bricklayer. The 1911 census shows that John’s other sons were employed as an estate agent’s clerk (Thomas who was born in 1889) and a law clerk (William who was born in 1891). Herbert doubtless enjoyed the many benefits of being the youngest child and his two elder sisters Nellie and Bessie most probably doted on him.
At around this time Herbert was attending King Charles I Grammar School in Kidderminster, having passed his entrance examination in his final year at Wribbenhall. Herbert’s family would surely have been proud of him; it was no mean feat for boys from a working-class background to gain entry into the grammar school - Herbert was clearly a clever boy.
Throughout his years at this school, Herbert would most certainly have spent time gazing up at the Tablets of Remembrance, mounted in the school’s main assembly hall. The tablets listed previous school headmasters, governors, and other noted dignitaries. Shining brightest of them all, was the name of Tom Lawrence, the school’s only Victoria Cross winner who’d won the most prestigious gallantry medal of them all in the Second Boer War.
As well as being clever, Herbert was obviously a very sociable young man too, being an active member of the Bewdley Institute which he joined in 1914, at the age of 17.
Once he was old enough to take the King’s shilling, for some reason, Herbert chose to sign-up and serve in a Birmingham City Battalion rather than his more local, Worcestershire Regiment. Research suggests that he was not alone in this respect, with several young Bewdley men making the same choice – perhaps they were friends and wanted to stay together? This was certainly the thinking of the time, with ‘pals’ regiments springing-up all over the country.
The Birmingham 14th, 15th and 16th (Service) battalions, were raised in September 1914 from men volunteering in and around the city. These units were also referred to as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd City of Birmingham battalions but were better known as the Birmingham Pals (or locally as the Brummagem Pals).
Each of these units raised a reserve Company for support throughout their training periods.
It must be remembered that at this time, soldiers were frequently transferred from company to company, battalion to battalion and regiment to regiment, as required to make up shortfalls. The 1st and 2nd Birmingham Pals in particular, suffered losses through the transferal of NCO’s to other regiments as they were offered commissions in order to replace officers lost in the field (more than 500 of the original volunteers to the City Battalions were commissioned during their training period, confirming not only the need for officer replacements across the British Army in general, but also the high calibre of the Birmingham City Battalion volunteers.)
Inevitably, certain recruitment requirements were relaxed to ensure that the reserve companies maintained their required compliment and eventually, these reserve companies were amalgamated to form the 17th Reserve Battalion.
From the configuration of Herbert’s service number, it appears likely that he enlisted sometime between May and June in 1915 (he signed-up in Birmingham).
Based upon his enrolment details and available ORBAT data (Order of Battle; the official confirmation of a unit’s involvement in conflict), Herbert would have undoubtedly seen action throughout the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
By 1917, Herbert’s battalion was part of ‘X Corps,’ an element of the 5th Division of the 15th Brigade which was heavily involved in the 3rd Battle of Ypres, most commonly referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele; one of the Great War’s bloodiest and most horrific battles.
By October 1917, the ongoing, attritional grind of battle, which three months earlier had started so well for the Commonwealth forces with the victory at Messines, had become a stalemate - due in no small part to truly horrendous weather conditions combined with a stiffening of the German resistance.
Herbert’s battalion was heavily involved in the 5th Division’s fighting around Polderhoek Chateau, when they were directed to relieve the 23rd Division who’d been in the thick of things around the Chateau for some time. This order came on the 1st of October 1917.
At this stage of the battle, the terrain to be traversed had been turned into a morass of slime-filled shell-holes, no trenches had survived the continuous barrages and the unforgiving, driving rain.
Rather optimistically, an objective-line was set that sat some way beyond the Chateau stronghold.
On the 4th of October, the attack went-in, with the 2nd Bn. of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) at the vanguard. In close support were the 1st and 14th Royal Warwickshire, with the 15th Royal Warwickshire in reserve.
Due to numerous acts of great bravery, the Division took the Chateau grounds despite suffering heavy losses. Subsequent counterattacks from the Germans were repulsed thanks to disciplined small arms defensive-fire from the KOSB and the Warwick's, supported by accurate and crippling artillery from the British gunners at the rear.
The following day, the Brigade consolidated; reinforcing their defensive positions and restocking ammunition to ensure that the costly territorial gains could be held against the inevitable German onslaught.
On the evening of the 5th of October, Herbert’s 15th Brigade relieved 13th Brigade and his 16th Battalion took-over in reserve from the 14th Royal Warwickshire, all the time under continuous bombardment from the German artillery.
The incoming shellfire was relentless, and it was during this phase of the battle that Herbert fell – on the 6th of October, as a result of merciless German artillery barrages.
Belgium:
Private, No. 1600, Herbert Coldrick of the 16th Battalion, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died on the 6th of October 1917 - aged just 20. He has no known grave.
He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial in West Vlaanderen, Belgium.
This memorial is one of four that are dedicated to the missing in Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. The Tyne Cot Memorial bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. It's the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials.
At the suggestion of King George V (who visited the cemetery in 1922) the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pillbox. There are three other pillboxes in the cemetery (the name ‘Tyne Cot’ derives from the term used by the Northumberland Fusiliers to describe the row of German pillboxes. The Fusiliers thought they resembled ‘Tyne Cottages’ or ‘Tyne Cots’).
England:
Back in Blighty, Herbert is commemorated on the Bewdley War Memorial which can be found on the external, East wall of St Anne’s Church, Load Street, Bewdley in Worcestershire (a two-minute walk from number 39 where the Coldrick family lived).
On this memorial, the name of Thomas Coldrick can also be found – Herbert’s elder brother.
He signed up and served with the Lincolnshire Regiment before being commissioned to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant with the Worcestershire Regiment (initially the local ‘Kidderminster Pals’ 7th Battalion, but subsequently attached to the 10th Battalion at the time of his death on the 21st of March, 1918).
So, the Coldrick family lost two of their three sons (John, the eldest was exempted from military service in order to continue the family business).
Herbert is also commemorated on the War Memorial which stands outside of the All Saints Church on the Kidderminster Road in Wribbenhall, Bewdley.
Brothers Herbert and Thomas Coldrick are also commemorated on a family erected private memorial in the tiny (and now overrun) churchyard at Ribbesford in Bewdley.
Herbert’s epitaph reads: “Fell on the Menin Road, Belgium”
Thomas’s epitaph reads: “Fell at Bapaume, France”
Back in the main assembly hall at King Charles I Grammar School in Kidderminster, a new Tablet of Remembrance was made and affixed to the wooden paneled wall. It contained the names of some 46 old boys who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War, those who fell in Flanders, Picardy, Qatia and Gallipoli.
As an ex-pupil myself, I spent hours gazing up in awe at the names of these brave young men. They were heroes to me then, they are heroes to me now.
Rest in Peace Herbert Coldrick – never forgotten, you will be remembered for evermore…
Acknowledgements: Story content ~ IWM Life story, Herbert Coldrick | Lives of the First World War (iwm.org.uk). Header and portrait image - copyright IWM.
DONATE TO OUR CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
Your donation supports projects like this one, which educate and involve future generations in remembering those who fell in the two world wars. Your support helps us keep their stories alive. Thank you.
