BORN IN BARROW-ON-HAVEN, LINCS 1878. SON OF THOMAS AND HANNAH COCKING, BARROW ON HUMBER. HIS WIFE, ELLEN COCKING (BORN 5/11/1883) & TWO DAUGHTERS, OLIVE AND VERA COCKING, LIVED AT 4, ST GEORGES AVENUE, BOULEVARD, HULL (1911 CENSUS) AND LATER 11, MILO TERRACE, NEW HOLLAND, LINCOLNSHIRE. A LABOURER. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. KILLED IN ACTION AT SERRE, ON 13/11/1916, AGED 38.
HIS DEATH & PHOTO WERE REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 16/12/1916. WEEKLY WAR PENSION – 22 SHILLINGS 11 PENCE.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ALFRED HENRY COCKING 12/792. Born in 1878 in Barrow-on-Humber, Lincolnshire Alfred was one of five children to Thomas and Hannah Cocking. A Labourer by trade he lived with his wife Ellen and their three daughters Olive, Vera and Nellie at 10 Gordon Ave, Woodcock Street, Hull at the time of his enlistment ON 1st October 1914. He joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. Sadly Nellie Cocking died of bronchial pneumonia on 6th April 1915 and Alfred was present at her bedside. The Pals shipped for Egypt in December 1915 and Alfred’s time there is marked by him being sentenced to 10 days Field Punishment No.1 for Drunkenness. He arrived in France early in March 1916 and soon learned the harsh realities of life in the trenches of the Western Front. Alfred Henry Cocking was killed in action on 13th November 1916 at Beaumont Hamel on the Somme and is buried in Euston Road Cemetery; he was 38 years old.
