Joseph William COE

Major Joseph William Coe FRCVS was born at Stoke-on-Trent on 22 March 1868 and qualified as a veterinary surgeon in London in 1889. His military connection long pre-dated the First World War.

In 1908 The London Gazette recorded Veterinary-Captain Joseph William Coe transferring from the 1st Shropshire and Staffordshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) into the new Territorial Force. Two years later, on 8 July 1910, he transferred into the Army Veterinary Corps as a Veterinary-Major. He therefore entered the wartime veterinary service with years of both professional and military experience behind him.

During the First World War Coe served as a Deputy Assistant Director of Veterinary Services with the 59th Division. Existing medal research places his entry into France on 24 February 1917. He died at Rouen on 21 October 1917, aged forty-nine. The memorial’s existing research records that his death followed injuries sustained in a fall from a horse.

The Commonwealth War Graves record identifies him as the son of Joseph Coe of Stoke-on-Trent and the husband of Gertrude M. Coe of 54 Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury. He is buried in St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, in Officers Plot B, Row 4, Grave 13.

Coe’s story is important because he was not simply a civilian veterinary surgeon commissioned for wartime expansion. He belonged to the pre-war Volunteer and Territorial veterinary structure from which part of the enlarged wartime Army Veterinary Corps was built.