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his sports. I found the 1910 certificate (below) quite interesting. He and his family used to walk from Southgate in N. London to Berkeley in Glos. for a holiday and return by train!
Egbert also had a good Bass singing voice and sang in church choirs in Berkeley and later in London, taking solo parts in some pieces.
The tankard is engraved W.E.A.S.A. But unfortunately I have no idea what it stood for; as a guess, I suggest it could have been either the West End or the West of England Amateur Swimming Association, but I doubt if I’ll ever know for certain! Egbert was a VERY strong swimmer, being the only man to have swum across the River Severn during a full bore. We have a newspaper cutting that must have been in about 1891 and probably from the Dursley News headed “Extraordinary feat by Berkeley man”.
My FATHER, EGBERT JOHN COPE (1899 - 1983) & WORLD WAR 1.
Dad was born on 17th March 1899 while his parents were living in West Hampstead, London and was educated at Friern Barnet Grammar School. He entered the Westminster Bank as a clerk and studied for his Bankers Exams at evening classes but the 1st World War intervened and he joined the Volunteer Training Corps in 1916, with his Father. This was the equivalent of the 2nd World War’s Home Guards. He duly joined the 5th Volunteer Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment aged 17 years and 8 months! He must then have volunteered for the Machine Gun Corps who were based at Grantham, Lincs. He was in the 245th Company which was formed mid-1917 and became part of the 50 th Northumbrian Division on 30/7/1917. He went “into the Field” on the 22nd April, 1918 on the AISNE front at “Chemin-des-Dames.” (SEE more Detail HERE.) He was in one of 7 allied Divisions facing 30 German Divisions and in the very early hours of 27th May 1918 all hell broke loose, in the form of a shell barrage. My Father was captured on the Craonne Plateau on that same day, as their position was totally overwhelmed by German forces. The prisoners were marching and on the move for about 2 months before Dad went into hospital for 2 weeks, then they were entrained on August 15th for Germany and arrived at Guben Kriegsgefangenen Lager on August 18th. They remained in that P.O.W. Camp until late December (not as prisoners
Egbert also had a good Bass singing voice and sang in church choirs in Berkeley and later in London, taking solo parts in some pieces.
The tankard is engraved W.E.A.S.A. But unfortunately I have no idea what it stood for; as a guess, I suggest it could have been either the West End or the West of England Amateur Swimming Association, but I doubt if I’ll ever know for certain! Egbert was a VERY strong swimmer, being the only man to have swum across the River Severn during a full bore. We have a newspaper cutting that must have been in about 1891 and probably from the Dursley News headed “Extraordinary feat by Berkeley man”.
My FATHER, EGBERT JOHN COPE (1899 -
Dad was born on 17th March 1899 while his parents were living in West Hampstead, London and was educated at Friern Barnet Grammar School. He entered the Westminster Bank as a clerk and studied for his Bankers Exams at evening classes but the 1st World War intervened and he joined the Volunteer Training Corps in 1916, with his Father. This was the equivalent of the 2nd World War’s Home Guards. He duly joined the 5th Volunteer Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment aged 17 years and 8 months! He must then have volunteered for the Machine Gun Corps who were based at Grantham, Lincs. He was in the 245th Company which was formed mid-
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Gloucestershire COPE Family Site.
My COPE FAMILY (continued). (Page 5 of 9)
(Left) One of several postcards of the Craonne area of Chemin des Dames battle front near Soissons in France where my Father served as a Machine Gunner and was captured. His Mother bought the cards when visiting the battlefields of France and Belgium some time in the early 1920’s.