Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...

George Alfred Coppard MM (26 January 1898 – 17 February 1985) was a British

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

who served with the

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Following his retirement he published his memoirs entitled ''With A Machine Gun to Cambrai'' in 1969.

Early years

George Coppard was born on 26 January 1898 and left school to work for a

taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...

firm at the age of 13.

World War I

Following the outbreak of War in 1914, towards the end of August he attempted to enlist at Mitcham Road Barracks in Croydon. After telling a recruiting sergeant his real age he was told to clear off and "come back tomorrow and see if you're nineteen". He returned the next day and lied about his age, stating that he was nineteen, and was enlisted. It was 27 August 1914 and he was sixteen years and seven months old. He joined the 6th Battalion

Royal West Surrey Regiment The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...

(now part of

The Queen's Regiment The Queen's Regiment (QUEENS) was an infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1966 through the amalgamation of the four regiments of the Home Counties Brigade. Then, until 1971 the regiment remained one of the largest regiments in the arm ...

). Having completed training in Guildford, the

Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

was posted to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in 1915, where they soon found themselves involved in the

battle of Loos The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. Th ...

. At this stage Coppard had become a member of one of the

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

teams. He fought in the front line almost continuously through the campaigns of 1916 and 1917 with the exception of a period of convalescence after he was accidentally shot by a colleague on 17 October 1916. This included most of the

battle of the Somme (1916) The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place betw ...

and the

battle of Arras (1917) The Battle of Arras (also known as the Second Battle of Arras) was a British offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British troops attacked German defences near the French city of Arras on the We ...

. He was wounded again on 22 November 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai, nearly killed by a machine gun bullet which passed through his left thigh and severed his

femoral artery The femoral artery is a large artery in the thigh and the main arterial supply to the thigh and leg. The femoral artery gives off the deep femoral artery or profunda femoris artery and descends along the anteromedial part of the thigh in the f ...

. His life was saved by his colleagues, who quickly applied a

tourniquet A tourniquet is a device that is used to apply pressure to a limb or extremity in order to stop the flow of blood. It may be used in emergencies, in surgery, or in post-operative rehabilitation. A simple tourniquet can be made from a stick an ...

. By this time Coppard had been promoted to Corporal and awarded the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...

for gallantry before Cambrai. On the day that he was wounded his promotion to sergeant was to have been recorded in company orders, but this did not happen due to his wound. He was invalided to England, to Birkenhead Borough Hospital, where he remained until June 1918. He was discharged to the Machine Gun Corps convalescent camp at Harrowby in Yorkshire, where he was still recovering when the Armistice was signed.

Later years

With the

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

Coppard was discharged in 1919 and, following a period of unemployment, sought employment as an assistant steward at a golf club and thereafter in various sundry appointments. He retired in 1962 having worked at the

Ministry of National Insurance National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their famil ...

since 1946. He was married and had two daughters. During retirement Coppard sought and received encouragement from the Imperial War Museum to have his wartime diaries published. Published in 1969, ''With a Machine Gun to Cambrai'' proved an instant success, prompting his contemporaries to publish their own wartime accounts.

References

External links

Coppard's page
on FirstWorldWar.com
Coppard's page
on

Spartacus Educational Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects principally British history from 1700 and the history of the United States. Based in the United Kingdom, Spart ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coppard, George 1898 births 1985 deaths Queen's Royal Regiment soldiers British Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the Military Medal British memoirists People from Brighton Taxidermists 20th-century memoirists Machine Gun Corps soldiers Military personnel from Sussex