Pte 58764 Harold Cocker

• Age: 25
• From: Burnley, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• Died Thursday 27th June 1918
• Commemorated at: Berlin South West Cem
  Panel Ref: I.D.1

Harold was born on 04th September 1892 in Burnley the son of Mary Cocker who was employed as a weaver. He was Baptised on 13th October 1892 at St John the Baptist Church in Burnley. 

Mary married Samuel Young in February 1893 and at the time of the 1901 Census the family are living at 28 Church Street, Burnley.

Mary died in 1907 aged 35 when Harold was just 13.

His stepfather remarried in 1908 and Harold was taken in by his uncle, John Cocker, who was Mary's brother. John's own wife had died aged 37 in 1906 leaving him with 7 young children to bring up. John remarried in 1910 to Johanna Quinn. Harold was raised with his cousins Herbert, Sarah, Ethel, Eva, Joseph, Fred and Lily.

The 1911 Census shows the family are living at 36 Church Street, Burnley. Harold is now 18 and is working in a Cotton warehouse. His adoptive father John is shown as a master clogger. 

Harold married Grace Sugar in Burnley in 1914 and they had two daughter; Mary born in 1915 and Annie born in 1917. Prior to enlisting Harold was a warehouse man for Bankfield Mill, Burnley. 

Harold enlisted in May 1916 and joined the Lancashire  Fusiliers. He transferred to The King's Liverpool Regiment was originally to the 18th Battalion but was serving with the 17th Battalion as Private 58764 when he was captured on 23rd March 1918 and taken as a Prisoner of War. He was wounded with an injury to his right arm.

A newpaper report shows that his wife received incorrect information of Harold's death:

OFFICIAL DEATH NOTICE ERRONEOUS

Mrs Cocker of 207 Cog Lane, Burnley, this week was apprised through a postcard from her husband Private Harold 58764, King's Liverpool Regiment, that he is a prisoner of war. Extraordinary circumstances surrounding this case. Previously she had been officially notified of his death in action on March 22nd. Before the official message came Mrs Cocker was told by a comrade of husband that he was dead. Private Cocker is 25 years of age, and previous to joining the Army was a warehouseman in the employ of the Bankfield Mill Co., Burnley. He had been a scholar at St Peter's Sunday school. He joined up in May 1916 and received his training at Whitchurch. At the latter end of the following December he was drafted to France where he participated in much of the recent severe fighting. Private Herbert Cocker, his cousin, who is in The King's Own, is also a prisoner of war in the hands of the Germans.

We can only imagine Grace's joy at the news but it was sadly to be short lived as Harold died on 27th June 1918, aged 25, at Strendl Camp Hospital.

He now rests at Berlin South Western Cemetery, Germany at I.D.1.

In 1922-23 it was decided that the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died all over Germany should be brought together into four permanent cemeteries. Berlin South-Western was one of those chosen and in 1924-25, graves were brought into the cemetery from 146 burial grounds in eastern Germany. There are now 1,176 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated in the Commonwealth plot at Berlin South-Western Cemetery. The total includes special memorials to a number of casualties buried in other cemeteries in Germany whose graves could not be found. The following cemeteries are among those from which graves were brought to Berlin South-Western Cemetery:- ALTDAMM PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, 8 kilometres East of Stettin, in the Province of Pommern (Pomerania), contained the graves of 46 soldiers from the United Kingdom, three from Newfoundland and two from Canada, who died in 1915-1918. BUDEROSE PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, near Guben, in the Province of Brandenburg, contained the graves of 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Canada and one from Australia, all of whom died in 1918. CROSSEN PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, 3 kilometres East of Crossen, on the river Oder, in the Province of Brandenburg, contained the graves of 66 sailors and soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Australia and one from South Africa all of whom died in 1918. DOBERITZ PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, about 19 kilometres West of Berlin, in the Province of Brandenburg, contained the graves of 38 sailors and soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914-1918. HASENHEIDE GARRISON CEMETERY, on the South side of the city of Berlin, contained the graves of 369 Russian, 125 French, and 58 Belgian, American, Italian, Rumanian, Portuguese or Serbian soldiers; 63 sailors, soldiers and Marines from the United Kingdom; and one Indian soldier. HEILSBERG PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Ostpreussen (East Prussia), contained the graves of 50 soldiers and one Marine from the United Kingdom, who died in 1917 and 1918. Only twelve of which were found when the graves were being recovered; the remainder are still buried at Heilsberg. KLEIN WITTENBERG OLD CEMETERY, 3 kilometres West of Wittenberg, in the Prussian province of Saxony, contained the graves of 23 soldiers, one Marine and eight civilians from the United Kingdom and one soldier from India, all of whom died in 1915; the NEW (or PRISONERS OF WAR) CEMETERY, those of 71 soldiers and three civilians from the United Kingdom, two soldiers from Canada and one from Australia, who died in 1915, 1917 and 1918; and WITTENBERG OLD SMALL CEMETERY those of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914 and 1915. The first and third of these cemeteries are associated with the outbreak of typhus at the Wittenberg camp in December 1914. LAMSDORF PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Schlesien (Silesia), contained the graves of 81 soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Australia and one from New Zealand, who died in 1917-1919 (it was used for French burials in 1870-71). MAGDEBURG MILITARY CEMETERY, in Prussian Saxony, contained the graves of 24 soldiers and one Marine from the United Kingdom who died in 1915-1918. MERSEBURG TOWN CEMETERY, in Prussian Saxony, contained the graves of 12 soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914-1917, and the PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY those of 33 soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1917-1918. OPPELN TOWN CEMETERY, in Upper Silesia, contained the graves of 41 soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1921-22. They belonged to the British force stationed in Upper Silesia during the Plebiscite. Thirty of them, who died after the legal termination of the war, were left buried at Oppeln. SCHNEIDEMUHL PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Posen, West Prussia, on the borders of Poland, contained the graves of 76 soldiers from the United Kingdom, five from Australia, three of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, and one from Canada, who died in 1915-1918. Eighteen of the graves could not be recovered. STARGARD PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Pomerania, contained the graves of 37 soldiers and one Marine from the United Kingdom, two soldiers from New Zealand and one of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, who died in 1917-1918. STENDAL PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Prussian Saxony, contained the graves of 140 soldiers from the United Kingdom, two from Canada and one from Newfoundland, who died in 1917-1918. ZERBST (HEIDETOR) CEMETERY, in Anhalt, contained the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914-1915, and the PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY those of 45, who died in 1917-1918.

Harold's wife Grace never remarried and died in 1962. 

Harold's adoptive father John suffered tragedy when he lost two sons to pneumonia within three months during the end of 1916 and the start of 1917. Another son Herbert served with the Royal Lancashire Regiment and was captured at Vimy Ridge in April 1917. He was initially reported as killed in action but sent a Post Card home from Dulmen POW camp to advise that he was alive. Herbert survived the war and lived to the age of 73. John Cocker died in 1925.

We currently have no further information on Harold Cocker, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.