Harold COX
![COX](images/coxH/coxH.jpg)
Harold Cox was born on 26 January 1875 at Emerald Hill, Victoria. His parents were Ross and Mary (née Haskell) Cox. He attended Scotch from 1889 to 1891.
Harold was an AMP insurance officer and branch manager when he enlisted on 19 January 1915 at Wangaratta, Victoria. He served in the 23rd Battalion and 31st Battalion, 31st Battalion with the rank of Lieutenant.
Harold died on 20 July 1916 at Fleurbaix (Fromelles). He was 41 years of age.
Service record
Harold Cox had served as Company Quartermaster in the 5th Victorian Rifles in the South African War. He enlisted in January 1915 just before his 40th birthday. On his enlistment paper, his hair was described as ‘black with streaks of grey’. He was allocated to the reinforcements for the 23rd Battalion on 16 May 1915 as a 2nd Lieutenant.
On 16 September that year he arrived at Gallipoli, joining the 23rd Battalion. He remained there until the end of the campaign. In April 1915 he joined the new 5th Division, as a Lieutenant in the 31st Battalion. He was part of the advanced party of the 5th Division that sailed from Alexandria for Marseille, France, on 7 June 1916. He participated in the battle of Fromelles, and though initially reported missing, was found to have been buried by Reverend S.A. Beveridge of the 29th Battalion.
His Red Cross Wounded and Missing file contains two eyewitness reports pertaining to his death. One, by Lieutenant Gouder, a fellow officer of the battalion and dated 21 August 1916 from St Thomas’s Hospital, London, says that ‘My own stretcher bearer told me that Lieut Cox died on the stretcher on the night of July 20th.’ A hospitalised private from the same battalion, 2170 John Smith, said that on 19 July ‘Lieut Cox was wounded in the bombardment, a shell nearly blowing his shoulder away. When Informant saw him he was dead, but his wound had been dressed with a big pad of wool. Informant helped to bury him next day between the trenches and the village of Fleury Baix.'
The minister who gathered Harold’s belongings in a parcel to be sent home, Reverend Cranston, said that Cox was ‘shot through the heart and death was instantaneous’. Harold’s body was later transferred to Rue-Petillon cemetery. In Harold’s service file a document that is unsigned but clearly testimony of a 31 Battalion officer says ‘This officer had his shoulder shattered by a shell during the operations at Fromeeles [sic] on 19/20.7.16 and died almost instantaneously.’
Harold Cox is buried in the Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, France.
Sources:
- Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour and Red Cross Wounded and Missing file
- Mishura Scotch Database
- National Archives of Australia – B2455, COX H
- Scotch Collegian 1919
- The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=65182