In Memory Of

COETZEE, JOHN HENRY

Service Details
Age:
 33
Date of Birth:
 1881-06-09
Service No:
 759
Rank:
 Private
Regiment:
 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment)
Date of Death:
 1915-05-09
Cause of Death:
 Killed in action
Commemoration
Grave Reference:
 II. A. 1.
Cemetery:
 YPRES RESERVOIR CEMETERY
Localitly:
 Ieper, West-Vlaanderen
Country:
 Belgium
Additional Information
Husband of Amy Coetzee, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Born Cape Town, South Africa. Previous service with Cape Mounted Rifles and Cape Field Artillery. Survived the fierce fighting on Bellewaerde Ridge only to be killed in the town of Ypres 9 May 1915. Shortly after mail call, he and several others wandered off to look at the town ruins when they were caught by an artillery shell. Sweeney J E (#805) and O'Keefe D (#23562) caught the full blast of the shrapnel and where killed instantly, while Mould A (#813) and Coetzee J H (#759) were mortally wounded. They were brought back to the ramparts to wait for the ambulance but both died before it arrived. All four originally buried in the Ramparts. Three were found after the war and buried together in Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, while Pte. Mould is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.[source: "With The Patricia's In Flanders- Then and Now 1914-1919" by Stephen K. Newman, pg.72.]