LANCE CORPORAL ARCHIBALD NICHOLSON COE
SOUTH AFRICAN INFANTRY
21ST OCTOBER 1917 AGE 24
BURIED: CEMENT HOUSE CEMETERY, LANGEMARK, BELGIUM
For his son's headstone inscription, Captain Richard James Coe quoted the words on the bronze memorial plaque distributed to the next-of-kin of all personnel who died between 4 August 1914 and 30 April 1919 as a result of their military service. The circular plaque features Britannia holding a laurel wreath over the name of the dead person, with a lion at her feet and beneath that a small lion savaging an eagle, to represent Britain's struggle against her enemies. The design of the plaque was open to public competition but the words were decided beforehand by a committee: "He/she died for freedom and honour".
The competition was held in the second half of 1917 but the first plaques were not issued until December 1918. However, there had been enough publicity about both competition and plaques for the words to be familiar to next-of-kin even before they received their own. As a consequence of the plaque, "He died for freedom and honour" is a very popular inscription.
Lance Corporal Coe served with the 4th Regiment South African Infantry, the South African Scottish. In the autumn of 1917 they were on the Ypres Salient. The 'The History of the South African Regiment in France'by John Buchan, describes the days surrounding Coe's death:
On the night of the 13th [October] the 2nd and 4th South African Regiments moved up to the front line .... The relief was very difficult, for the whole country had become an irreclaimable bog, and the mud was beyond all human description. There was intermittent shelling during the 14th and 15th, and much bombing from enemy planes. On the night of the 16th the 2nd and 4th Regiments were relieved by the 1st and 3rd. For five more days the Brigade remained in the front trenches, taking part in no action, but suffering heavily from the constant bombardment. Between the 13th and the 23rd October, when it moved out of the Salient, it had no less than 261 casualties in killed and wounded.