In Memory of
COCKIN, MAURICE HERBERT BATTLE
Captain
Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, R.C.I.C..
who died 27 age
on 21 July 1943
AGIRA WAR CEMETERY, SICILY
Born 17 Nov 1915, Mortlake, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, England
Son of Maurice Stanley Cockin and Alice Grace Cockin, of Mortlake, Surrey, England. M.A. (Cantab.).
On the morning of July 20 Bruce Sutcliffe and his Intelligence Officer, Battle Cockin (whose unusual Christian name of Battle was invariably shortened to Bat), set off for a reconnaissance.They crouched in the open, map boards in front of them, binoculars levelled, thir lenses winking in the sun as they anxiously scanned the mighty battlement looming ahead of them. They did not realise they were being regarded in their turn.
On the Assoro scarp a crew of 88 laid their gun over open sigths. Seconds later a cloud of yellow dust and black smoke obscured the observation post in the valley below.. Under its pall Sutcliffe lay dead and Cockin dying.
Bat Cockin was still alive when they brought him back. He was in great agony, and he had apparently been asking to see me, as he had something to tell me. He and Bruce Sutcliffe had been staring up at the great peak of Assoro, and the zig-zag road that ran up to the village of that name. Although he was pretty far gone, his speech suddenly came back to him with most remarkable clarity, and he grabbed my wrist and said, "John, for God's sake don't go up that road." I don't think he spoke again.
From: "The Battle of Assoro"
LCOL The Lord Tweedsmuir
Here are the circumstances about Bat Cockin's death from "The Battle of Assoro" by Lord Tweedsmuir:
On the morning of July 20 Bruce Sutcliffe and his Intelligence Officer, Battle Cockin (whose unusual Christian name of Battle was invariably shortened to Bat), set off for a reconnaissance.
They crouched in the open, map boards in front of them, binoculars levelled, their lenses winking in the sun as they anxiously scanned the mighty battlement looming ahead of them. They did not realise they were being regarded in their turn.
On the Assoro scarp a crew of 88 laid their gun over open sigths. Seconds later a cloud of yellow dust and black smoke obscured the observation post in the valley below. Under its pall Sutcliffe lay dead and Cockin dying.
Information courtesy of the 