COTTON Robert Douglas

  • First Name(s):
    Robert 
    Douglas 
  • Surname:
    COTTON
  • Service Number:
    514965
  • Rank:

    Second Lieutenant

  • Conflict:
    WW1
  • Service:
    Army
  • Army Sector:
    Infantry
  • Regiment:
    London Regiment (London Scottish)
  • Battalion:
    14th Battalion
  • Unit:
    2nd/14th Battalion
  • Former Units:
    None
  • Date of Death:
    5th April 1919
  • Age At Death:
    20
  • Place of Death:
    Unknown
  • Place of Burial:
    Bromsgrove Cemetery, Worcestershire, England, Grave R. 19.
  • Place of Birth:
    Unknown
  • Home Town:
    Unknown
  • Casualty's Relatives:

    Son of Jessie Cotton, of Finstall Cottage, Bromsgrove, and the late E.B. Cotton

Remember The Fallen - Lest We Forget

Notes About The Memorial(s) Listed Above

Aston Fields War Memorial with the information: (2nd Lieut.) M.C. Bromsgrove School WW1 Memorial with the information: M.C. Second- Lieut.

Further Information About COTTON Robert Douglas

Additional information on the memorial: M.C. Second- Lieut.

Awarded Military Cross (M.C.)

Robert Cotton was born on 11th September 1898 and he attended Bromsgrove School from 1910 to 1912. After leaving school he became a member of the Bromsgrove Volunteer Detachment, and as soon as he reached military age he enlisted, serving first as Private 514965 with the London Regiment before being granted a commission in January 1918. Proceeding overseas April 1918, he was severely wounded in the leg on 15th October 1918 and was sent to the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester, being transferred to the 1st Southern General Hospital, Bournbrook, and later to the Southern General Hospital, Dudley Road, Birmingham, where he died some months later. Lieutenant Cotton had been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the field in the course of the final operations in France: On the night of 5th September 1918, he was in charge of a raiding party; under his splendid leadership the raiding party was able to get within fifteen yards of the enemy posts before being observed. With great dash and courage he then led the rush again the machine gun posts; he showed great coolness and resource throughout.
He was one of three brothers all of whom gained distinctions in the war. He is the only O.B. killed in the Great War interred close to his School, in Bromsgrove Cemetery

Source: Bromsgrove School at War 1914-19 by Philip Bowen and Bromsgrove School at War 1914-19 by David Cross.

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