HERBERT COLEMAN was serving as a Private with the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards when he was killed in action on 27th August 1918, during the Battle of the Scarpe. He was aged 21 and is buried in Mory Abbey Military Cemetery.

He was the son of Una Coleman and lived in Bloxham with his mother and grandparents, working as a plough boy. On 23rd August 1918 the Battalion had moved up to trenches near the village of Boiry-Becquerelle south of Arras. On 27th August 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. He was originally buried in the Grenadier Guards Cemetery in St Leger, being re-interred in Mory in December 1919.

Steve Kingsford