Notes
The All About Thornton website (see References) states: ‘Herbert Coleman, born in 1897, son of Una Coleman and grandson of John and Anne Coleman, of 4 The Green, Milcombe, Oxfordshire. He moved to Allerton to work as a Farm labourer at Pikeley Farm. Enlisted in Bradford. Guardsman, #28521, 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards. He enlisted into the Grenadier Guards in Bradford in January 1917. He joined the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards in France in September 1917. On 12th Ocober 1917 the Battalion was involved in the First Battle of Passchendaele, a phase of the 3rd Battle of Ypres. The 4th Grenadier Guards and 1st Welsh Guards advanced through the heavy rain to move the line forwards a few hundred yards, north-east of Veldhoek, securing the blockhouses at Angle Point and Aden House to reach Colombo House on the edge of Houthulst Forest. Following which the whole of the Divisional position was subjected to a heavy German barrage of gas shells. Between 9th and 15th October, the Guards Division suffered 2264 casualties advancing the British line at Ypres. Private Coleman was wounded by shrapnel to the right thigh on 15th October and evacuated to hospital before returning to England where he was admitted to the Military Convalescent Hospital, Eastbourne.
After recovery he returned to France and joined the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards. On 23rd August 1918 the Battalion had moved up to trenches near the village of Boiry-Becquerelle south of Arras. On 27th August, as part of the Second Battle of Arras, at 0900 they advanced on German positions around the village of Écoust-Saint-Mein. They came under intense machine gun fire and took over 200 casualties including Private Coleman. Killed in action 27th August 1918, age 21. Interred at Mory Abbey Military Cemetery, Mory, Pas de Calais, France Plot IV,D.14. Also remembered on Egypt Methodist Church Memorial window, Allerton and Daisy Hill War Memorial, and Milcombe War Memorial, Oxfordshire, Thornton Methodist Church Roll of Honour. He was originally buried in the Grenadier Guards Cemetery in St Leger, being re-interred in Mory in December 1919.'