Private George Cock

Private George Cock, 12th ( Service ) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. He was killed in action in France on 7th October 1916, aged 35, during the Battle of the Somme. He was the son of the late Robert Cock of Doddington Mill, Wooler and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. He fell in the successful attack near the Butte de Warlencourt where the Battalion cleared the German positions at the ” Tangle ” which in turn led to the capture of the village of Le Sars. The autumnal rains turned the chalky soil of the Somme into a glutinous quagmire which made movement of men and guns very difficult as can be seen from the photographs. The colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today ” with no gas, no barbed wire,no guns firing now”.