Joseph Coombes
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
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Joseph was born in 1887 in Dunkirk and was the son of John a corporation labourer and Emma Coombes née Cook. His father was born in Shoreham Kent in 1862, his mother in 1864 at Shelford Nottinghamshire. They married in 1884.They had 13 children eleven surviving infancy:- Elizabeth b.1885 Shelford, Joseph b.1887 Nottingham, Edith b.1889 Nottingham, John b.1891 Nottingham, Florence Sarah b.1894 Dunkirk, George b.1896 Dunkirk (killed in action 27/9/1915), Frederick b.1900 Dunkirk, Herbert b.1902 Dunkirk, Evelyn b.1904 Dunkirk, May b.1905 Dunkirk and Ruth Hilda b.1908 Dunkirk. In 1911 the family lived at 70 Dunkirk Road Dunkirk Nottingham. Joseph married Alice Mary Billings, who was born in Coalville Leicestershire in 188, at Nottingham in 1910. Alice married Harry Neale in 1915.
Joseph Coombes enlisted in Nottingham on 2nd December 1903 and first entered a theatre of war in France on 8th September 1914. He was wounded and taken prisoner. He died of his wounds whilst in German hands on 28th December 1914 and is buried in Enghien Communal Cemetery, Hainaut, Belgium
Obituaries from the Nottingham Evening Post dated 27th September 1916 : - “COOMBS. – In loving memory of Private George Coombes, killed in action September 27th, 1915. Also his brother, Private Joseph Coombes, died of wounds December 27th, 1914. We miss them most who loved them best. – Never forgotten by their sorrowing mother, sisters, and brothers." Obituarycourtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918.
