Pte 17176 Jack Cohen

• Age: 21
• From: London
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Danzig Alley Cem, Mametz
  Panel Ref: VIII.U.7

17176 Private Jack COHEN, 18^th Battalion KLR.

Jacob (Jack) Cohen was born on the 06^th March 1895, in Whitechapel, London.  His parents, Simon and Leah Cohen, were  both born in Plock, Russian Poland and married in about 1880.  With children Isaac, Solomon and Esther, they emigrated to London in about 1888, where Morris, Sarah, Abraham, Jack, Eva, Arnold and Harry were born.  Between 1901 and 1904 they moved to Liverpool where son Ralph was born.

In 1901 the family is living at 21 Princelet Street, Spitalfields, London.  Jack's father, Simon, is aged 39 and is a cap and hat maker, employer, his mother Leah is aged 38. They have nine children; Isaac 18 a cap cutter, Solomon 16 a cap packer, Esther 14 a cap packer, Morris 12, Sarah 10, Abraham 7, Jack is aged 5, Eva 3, Arnold 4 months. Also in the home is his paternal grandmother, Rachel Cohen aged 62, as well as a domestic servant. 

After moving to Liverpool by 1904, on the 1911 Census they are living at 109 Paddington, Liverpool. His father Samuel is aged 50, a cap maker, working on his own account, mother Leah is aged 49 and they state that they have been married for 30 years and 10 of their 12 children have survived. Seven of their children are declared in the household; Esther 23, Sarah 20 a tailoress, Aby 20 a tailor, Jack is 16 assisting in the business, Eva 13, Harry 9 and Ralph 6 are all at school.    

Jack enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 02^nd September 1914, as Private 17176, joining the  18^th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, giving his age as 19 years and 180 days, and his occupation as clerk. He is described as being 5’5” tall, weighing 120lbs, a 35" chest with brown eyes and dark hair.  He gives as his next of kin his father, Simon Cohen, 109 Paddington, Liverpool. His religion is stated as Jewish.

From the 23^rd September 1914 he was billeted at Hooton Park Race Course and remained there until 03^rd December 1914 when they moved into the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 18th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. Jack shipped with his battalion to France on 07^th November 1915 on the SS Invicta.  

By the end of the year the battalion is at Hebuterne on the Somme front, and by the end of April is in the front line near Maricourt.  In mid-June they are released for training for the ‘Big Push’. The Battle of the Somme begins on 01^st July 1916.  This is the deadliest day in British military history.  Jack was one of the nearly 20,000 casualties on that day, reportedly shot dead whilst bringing up barbed wire to the front.

18^th Battalion Diary:

At 6.30am the artillery commenced an intensive bombardment of the enemy’s trenches. Zero Hour – 7.30 am – the battalion commenced to leave their trenches and the attack commenced. The attack was pressed with great spirit and determination in spite of heavy shelling and machine gun enfilade fire which caused casualties amounting to 2/3rds of the strength of the Battalion in action. The whole system of German trenches including the Glatz Redoubt was captured without any deviation from the scheduled programme. Consolidated positions and made strong points for defence against possible counter attacks. 

Graham Maddocks provides more detail concerning the events of the day:

As the first three waves began to move forward towards the German reserve line, known as Alt Trench and then on to the Glatz Redoubt itself, they suddenly came under enfilading fire from the left. This was from a machine gun which the Germans had sited at a strong point in Alt Trench. The gun itself was protected by a party of snipers and bombers, who, hidden in a rough hedge, were dug into a position in Alt Trench, at its junction with a communication trench known as Alt Alley. These bombers and snipers were themselves protected by rifle fire from another communication trench, Train Alley which snaked back up the high ground and into Montauban itself. The machine gun fire was devastating and it is certain that nearly of the Battalion’s casualties that day were caused by that one gun.  

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Trotter  wrote in the conclusion of his account of the days action:

I cannot speak to highly of the gallantry of the Officers and men. The men amply repaid the care and kindness of their Company Officers, who have always tried to lead and not to drive. As laid down in my first lecture to the Battalion when formed, in the words of Prince Kraft:

“Men follow their Officers not from fear, but from love of the Regiment where everything had always and at all times gone well with them”.    

Joe Devereux in his book A Singular Day on the Somme gives the Casualty Breakdown for the 18^th Battalion as Killed in Action 7 Officers and 165 men and of those who died in consequence of the wounds 3 Officers and 19 men a total of 194 out of a total loss for the four Liverpool Pals Battalions of 257. 

Notices were placed in the local newspapers following news of his death:

Jack now rests at Danzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz.

The village of Mametz was carried by the 7th Division on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, after very hard fighting at Dantzig Alley (a German trench) and other points. The cemetery was begun later in the same month and was used by field ambulances and fighting units until the following November. The ground was lost during the great German advance in March 1918 but regained in August, and a few graves were added to the cemetery in August and September 1918. At the Armistice, the cemetery consisted of 183 graves, now in Plot I, but it was then very greatly increased by graves (almost all of 1916) brought in from the battlefields north and east of Mametz and from certain smaller burial grounds.

Dantzig Alley British Cemetery now contains 2,053 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 518 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 17 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 71 casualties buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

He was commemorated by his family on the first anniversary of his death:

His brother Abraham served in the R.A.S.C.

Pte 17176 J. Cohen is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 10 Left

British Jewry Roll of Honour

Liverpool Hebrew School Memorial.

His mother died, aged 69, in 1929.

His father died, aged 71, in 1936.  

See also the website We Were There Too which commemorates Soldiers of the Jewish Faith who fell in the Great War. Visit www.jewsfww.uk/the-project.php