*Please see Cotterill,Tom, on Hawarden War Memorial and G. Cotterill on St. Ethelwold’s Church Roll of Honour.

Cotterill, C is the name on the Connah’s Quay & Shotton Cenotaph and  C. Cotterill is what is on the paperwork given to me by Gilbert BUTLER from the Royal British Legion, it was a copy of the official Programme for the unveiling of the Cenotaph on the 1st May 1927 which gives a list of the men on the Cenotaph.     There is a T. Cotterill, on Hawarden War Memorial and a G. Cotterill on the St. Ethelwold’s Church Roll of Honour, I suspect that the T and the G, Cotterill are possibly the same man, George Thomas Cotterill.   I cannot find any information on a C. Cotterill and I wonder if the person who cast the list on the Cenotaph made that little mistake, mistaking the initial “G.” for “C.”?

I am writing up the information I have gathered for George Thomas Cotterill as,  he is on Hawarden & St. Ethelwold’s Church Screen, and I feel this man should be remembered on the Connah’s Quay & Shotton Cenotaph as he resided in Shotton.   Please let me know if you have any information on a C.Cotterill. 

There is a Flintshire WW1 Index Card (Sealand F3) for a Geo. Thos. Cotterill, 2 Brookside, Sealand, which agrees with the military information and date of death etc., and the card was signed by Thomas Cotterill on the 24th September 1919.

G.T. Cotterill is also remembered on the North Wales Memorial Arch which is in Bangor and there is a ??? Cotterill on the Sealand War Memorial which is in St. Andrew’s Church, Garden City.   This, I was led to believe was the Memorial for the little Chapel that was just after the Blue Bridge on the road to Garden City, but when it was demolished it was removed and it now resides in St. Andrew’s Church.  Please click on the link.

George Thomas first appeared on the 1901 census, George was age 2 , his sister Florence M. was a very young baby at “under” 5 months old.   George’s father Thomas Cotterill was listed as “Son-in-law” age 26 a Sheet Iron Roller, mother Florence was age 23, and the daughter of the head of the household, George Millward, a widower, age 64 and a Carter in the Iron Foundry, born Birmingham, Warwickshire, his son Fred Millward was age 18 and a Brass Caster, all except George were born in Willenhall, Staffordshire.    So the family were living with the “In-Laws” at Stringes Lane, Willenhall, Staffs.

By the 1911 census they had moved to 6, Butler Street, Shotton, Flintshire with 4 rooms, and the family had enlarged somewhat.   Thomas the father was now age 34 and an Iron Worker at the Galvanized Sheet Iron Works, Florence his wife was now age 33 and they had been married 12 years and 6 children had been born non of whom had died.   Young George Thomas was now age 12, daughter Florence Maud was age 10, new son Frederick John was age 7, born Shotton, as were the rest of the younger children, son William was age 6, all at school, daughter Ethel was age 4 and son Frank was age 2.   They had a Lodger, William Millward age 40,  Married and a Galvanizer Iron works ( No place of birth*)

UK soldiers who died in the Great War 1914 -19, accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk confirms the regimental information above and adds that he enlisted in Shotton.

George Thomas’ s medal card also accessible on ancestry, records his medal details and also tells us that he was born in Willenhall, Staffordshire but does not tell us where his first theatre of war was, nor when he entered it.