Ralph Charles Fairbairn Cotton was born on 16 January 1883 in Sydenham, Kent (now Greater London), one of the three children of Stephen Fairbairn Cotton (c.1857-1929) and Carrie Henrietta Maria Cotton née Hooper (c.1857-1929). His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1883 in the Lewisham Registration District, Kent (now Greater London).
He was educated at Winchester College from 1896 to 1902 and in the 1901 census he is recorded as aged 18 years and boarding in Culver House, Culvers Lane, Winchester, Hampshire. Our picture source gives much information about the man.
Having attended New College, Oxford he went onto study law and joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in 1907. He was called to the bar in 1908.
In the 1911 census he was shown as aged 28 years, single, a barrister-at-law and visiting the home of Robert Neale Menteth Bailey (1882-1917) a clerk at the House of Commons, at Ewen House, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, whilst his parents and his surviving sister, Stephanie Kathleen Fairbairn Cotton (1884-1964), were residing in the 22 roomed family home called Brydone in Bitterne, Southampton, Hampshire. His father was listed as a retired solicitor and now a director of a hotel company.
Marriage banns that were read at St Luke's Church, Sydney Street, Chelsea, London, between 7 December 1913 and 21 December 1913 showed him a bachelor residing in the parish of Knightsbridge, London and his fiancée was described as Isabel Jane Beatrice Haselfoot (1887-1960), a spinster of this parish. The marriage was registered in the 1st quarter of 1914 in the St George Hanover Square Registration District, London. They had two children: Teresa Jane Cotton (1915-2002) and Judith Mary Cotton (1916-2002).
Having reach the rank of Serjeant in the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps on 19 September 1914 he was commissioned there as a Second Lieutenant in the 1st/1st Hampshire Yeomanry (Carabiniers) and was later attached to the 4th Squadron Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry). He entered France on 16 October 1916 and had been promoted to Lieutenant and was Mentioned in Dispatches by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig for 'remarkable bravery and presence of mind in getting one of his guns into action under intense bombardment; after four of his men had been shot down in a first attempt, he himself carried the gun forward and placed it in position and was then gravely wounded' at Bourlon Wood, France in November 1917.
He was shot in the lungs in the cavalry attack at Bois Des Essarts, near Noyon, France on 26 March 1918. He was taken to the hospital at Compiegne, France and from there, as it was being shelled, to the 2nd American Red Cross Hospital at Evreux, France, where he lost consciousness and died on 28 March 1918, a few hours after his arrival. His body was buried in the French Military Plot 'Souvenir Francais', Row C, Grave 37 in the Evreux Communal Cemetery, Evreux, France. The London Gazette dated 10 October 1918 confirms that he was posthumously awarded the French Legion of Honour's Croix de Guerre.
Probate records show his address to have been 9 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, Middlesex (now Greater London), and that when probate was granted to his father on 11 May 1918 his effects totalled £2,009-1s-3d. His army effects totalling £173-18s-8d were sent to his widow on 17 October 1918 and she was sent his £8-0s-0d war gratuity on 16 December 1919. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal and these were sent in 1921 to his widow at 17 Jevington Gardens, Eastbourne, Sussex.
He is shown as 'R.C.FAIRBAIRN COTTON' on the Lincoln's Inn war memorial in New Square, London, WC2. He is also commemorated on a tablet inside Holy Saviour's Church, Bursledon Road, Bitterne, Southampton, SO18 5EE and on panel A5 of the War Cloister at Winchester College, College St, Winchester SO23 9NA. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on the A Street Near You website and on the Royal British Legion's Everyone Remembered website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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