Edgar William Cox
Edgar William Cox | |
---|---|
Born | 9 May 1882 Brigadier-General |
Unit | Royal Engineers, General Staff |
Battles/wars | First World War |
Awards | Distinguished Service Order, Legion of Honour |
Early career
Born to George and Louisa Cox of
Between 1912 and 1914, Cox demonstrated a talent for staff work and was assigned to the War Office as a staff officer (3rd class), gaining valuable experience in military intelligence and learning fluent French and German.[3] His work was good enough that in August 1914 he was attached to the staff of Sir John French in charge of the British Expeditionary Force sent to France to counter the German invasion at the start of World War I.[3][6]
First World War
In France he continued his staff duties under French throughout 1914 and 1915, participating in the planning and execution of several large offensives, but sharing in the reassignments at the start of 1916 following French's replacement by
Through 1916 and 1917 he served in the War Office as staff officer 2nd class to the Director of Military Intelligence and in January 1918 was recalled to France by Field Marshal Haig to take over his military intelligence department from Brigadier-General
Death
By the time the German Spring Offensive petered out in July 1918, they had reached the closest point to Paris of the entire war and had come close to breaking the Allied armies and winning the conflict. 850,000 British and French soldiers had been wounded killed or captured in just four months. Although the
Cause of death
Although officially his death was reported and recorded as an accident,[3][9] suspicions of suicide have remained given Cox's disturbed state of mind in the days before his fatal swim. The turmoil of this period was recorded by one of his subordinates, a junior officer named Howard Spring who would later become a famous novelist and who recounted the last days of Brigadier-General Cox in his autobiography In the meantime:
[He] chain-smoked cigarettes by day and night, allowing himself little time to eat and no time to rest, he wore his body to a shadow. The time came when the clouds came, the tensions relaxed and the miracle of salvation intervened. General Cox said he would go for a bathe. His chauffeur drove him to Berck Plage, and the general went down to the sea alone. No one saw the manner of his end. His body was recovered from the sea some time later.[6]
Notes
- ^ a b c "Brigadier General Edgar William Cox | War Casualty Details 500247". www.cwgc.org. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- ISBN 1843420929. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- ^ JSTOR 1779901.
- ^ "The Sierra Leone Boundary Commission". The Times. No. 36957. London. 22 December 1902. p. 6.
- ^ "No. 27516". The London Gazette. 16 January 1903. p. 309.
- ^ a b c d e f g P.56, Bloody Red Tabs, Davies & Maddocks
- ^ "No. 29357". The London Gazette. 5 November 1915. p. 1102.
- ^ Harris 2008, p480
- ^ P.23, Bloody Red Tabs, Davies & Maddocks
References
- Frank Davies & Graham Maddocks (1995). Bloody Red Tabs. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-463-6.
- Harris, J.P. Douglas Haig and the First World War. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-89802-7