Sergeant Arthur Cockayne, A.S.C.

[Chris Noble]

I wonder if anybody could help with a Gazette entry for this chap or any information.

I discovered this article quite a while back, and, fortunately, his service record survives albeit, quite hard to decipher.

Just some brief biog. on Arthur.

Employed by one George Gunter (a notable racehorse trainer in Yorkshire as a Chauffeur/Mechanic). And, just to add, George was the brother of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Robert Benyon Nevill Gunter, died, 16/8/17 and buried at PoperingheNew Military Cemetery.

Both brothers had a 'penchant' for fast horses and fast cars, Sir Robert, most notably for the latter.

Arthur attested for service in the A.S.C. on the 21/12/15 and was consequently posted to France on the 3/2/17 serving in that theatre until home leave was granted on the 2/2/18.

It is that month that the article is dated;

'On one of the fronts he went into action with a Tank that was heavily shelled by the Germans and broke down. Under heavy fire he repaired the Tank, putting in new lynch-pins, after which he re-started the Tank and took it into action again. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. Later, when attached to the French Tank Corps, he went into action with three Tanks. His superior officers were either killed or wounded, but he took charge, continued the action, and brought them safely back, for which the French Commander bestowed upon him the Croix de Guerre.'

Kindest regards,

Chris.

[17tankman]

I have check the name and can confirm he was not in the Tank Corps but might have been in 711 ASC MT. This was the unit that delivered and repaired tanks. He would not have driven into battle only up to the front.

Simon

[27thBN]

Hi Chris I have not found the gazette entry yet but what a great story of how he won the mm and his french decoration. I have as a general rule found the french awards very hard to find in the LG .Goes to show that the ASC sometimes really got stuck in and where in the thick of it .I have a DCM,MM to an ambulance driver i have the citation for the dcm but not the mm as usual he was in the ASC from the infantry after the boer war so i have never underestimated gallantry to the ASC

Great group

MC

[SteveE]

I wonder if anybody could help with a Gazette entry for this chap or any information.

<snip>

For this he was awarded the Military Medal.

<snip>

for which the French Commander bestowed upon him the Croix de Guerre.'

Chris

I, like the others, have trawled the Gazette and have come up with nothing. Being unable to find the Croix de Guerre is not too unusual but the failure to find the MM is a bit worrying. In addition to the lack of MM details in the Gazette there also appears to be no card for it on the NA website which makes me consider that perhaps the newspaper report may be a little fanciful?. Hopefully somebody (Stebie perhaps?) will be able to prove otherwise.

Regards

Steve

[ForeignGong]

Hi

As stated before my gazetted Foreign awards data base for WW1 is very close to 100% & P Whittingham's list is the same. Sorry, both have no listing of Arthur Cockayne. I have a Robert Cockayne with a Russ St George 3rd cl medal & a William Cockayne with a French Medaille d'Honneur with swords in silver.

Regards

ForeignGong