John Henry Coker was born in Hemel Hempstead in early 1897 the sixth child of Walter Coker and Mary South. Walter and Mary had seven children together who were: Albert, Nellie, Edith, Minnie, Frederick George, John Henry and William.

John’s family lived at 80 Cotterells Road when he was born in a house that was the Coker family home for over 40 years. His father Walter was a ‘Metal Turner’ in the engineering Department at Apsley Mills and his two oldest siblings, Albert and Edith also worked in the Mills for John Dickinson & Co. Limited.

In 1911 the whole family were living at home and except for John’s mother and youngest brother, everyone was in work. His father, two brothers and a sister worked at Apsley Mills; his oldest brother Albert was a ‘Stone Mason’; his sister Edith worked for S. Umfreville & Son who were muslin apron manufacturers at 5a Marlowes, close to the Sebright Arms pub and where Dacorum College stands today. Fourteen-year-old John worked as a ‘Butcher’s Errand Boy’.

On the outbreak of war John was seventeen-years-old and too young to enlist in the Colours. However, just a few months after his eighteenth birthday he joined the Grenadier Guards attesting at Caterham, Surrey in June 1915. It seems likely that he went to Caterham specifically to enlist with the Grenadiers who were based there at the ‘Guards Barracks’. The barracks at Caterham had been the largest Victorian Army base in the country and were home to the ‘Household Division’, the elite personal bodyguard to the Monarch.

He was posted to the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and immediately undertook his basic training before he was eligible to serve overseas in May 1916. The 2nd Grenadiers were under the orders of the Guards Division in the 1st Guards Brigade and John joined his comrades in Belgium close to Ypres. The Battalion moved to France in late August and it was not until mid-September that John saw significant action in the Trenches when he fought in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.

The Grenadiers incurred heavy casualties in the Battle with 359 in total, of which 100 were killed. John however, survived and next saw action on the 24th September at the Battle of Morval.

In this action the 1st Guards Brigade initially came under a heavy barrage from the Germans but subsequently encountered little opposition, apart from uncut wire which was cut by the officers. The first objective was rushed at 12:40 p.m. and captured by 1:20 p.m. and the advance to the next objective took only ten minutes, against "slight" opposition. The advance to the final objective was conducted against little opposition. Despite this success and the relatively light resistance the casualties on the 24th and 25th September amounted to 330 men of which sixty-seven were killed.

John was amongst the men killed and he died on Monday, 25th September 1916.

His was commemorated, along with seven other members of the congregation who had fallen, in a memorial service held at Marlowes Baptist Church on Sunday, 29th October 1916. 

A year after John’s death his family posted an ‘In Memoriam’ notice in the Hemel Gazette which was published on the 22nd September 1917.

John is Remembered with Honour on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, Pier and Face 8 D.

He was only 19 years old when he died.

John was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.