Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Victory Medal awarded to Private F. Coote, 11th (Cambridgeshire) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, who was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916

Victory Medal 1914-19 (15762 Pte. F. Coote. Suff. R.) very fine £100-£140

Frederick Coote was born in Little Thurlow, Suffolk, in 1897, and attested for the Suffolk Regiment. He served with the 11th (Cambridgeshire) Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, and was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. The Battalion War Diary for 1 July 1916 reads: ‘7:28 a.m. The mine opposite left of 101st Brigade was exploded. 7:30 a.m. The infantry assault was launched. The Battalion followed the 10th Lincolns from our assembly trenches down into Sausage Valley and across to the German lines. Owing to the failure of the 102nd Brigade on the left to capture La Boiselle, our advance from the moment it left our assembly trenches was subjected to a very heavy fire from machine guns from La Boiselle. In spite of the fact that wave after wave were mown down by machine gun fire, all pushed on without hesitation, though very few reached the German lines.’

Relieved on 4 July, the Battalion had suffered total casualties of 691. Coote is buried at Gordon Dump Cemetery at Ovillers-le-Boisselle, France.