Pte. E. Cope of Penallt

[warresearcher]

We can now reveal that Pte E. Cope was in fact Lt Eric Cope. The War Memorial has been dismantled and rebuilt with grants from the Lottery Heritage Fund, War Memorials Trust, Monmouthshire County Council, Trellech United Community Council, The Royal Naval Association, The Western Front Association and private donations.
During the recover of any archeology at the memorial it was found that the story of the bottle being placed there with a document was true. The bottle was recovered.

http://www.demotix.com/news/5456884/93-year-old-message-first-world-war-found-bottle-wales#media-5456364

The document left in the War Memorial has been recovered and is now with the archives. Conservation processes show it named the 3 officers: Pearce-Brown, Davis and Cope.
It would appear that the Monmouthshire Beacon misprinted it in its report of 12 March 1921 issue by which time the Cope family had left Whitebrook to live in Devauden. The Memorial In Penallt Old Church states "Pte E. Cope" and was placed there much later (1927?) it is my view that when the time came to make that Memorial the inscription at Penallt Old Church was probably based on a press cutting from the Beacon and hence compounded the issue.

The Memorial was rededicated on 20th September 2014.

In place of the document now in the archives we have placed several hundred pages of information inside two time capsules: One made of lead and one made of heavy duty plastic piping. This give considerable detail on the men who died and on others who served from Penallt in both World Wars. Perhaps in another one hundred years other readers of these pages will be discussing the War Memorial.

[Lydart]

Thanks for the update Peter.

It'll be good when I do the remembrance service at the war memorial in November to have the correct name and rank for E Cope at last !

Are you going to publish or make available to the people of Penallt all the information you have placed into the new time capsule ?   I understood you were going to publish a book ?   Can I order a pre-publication copy ?!

[warresearcher]

Lydart said<Thanks for the update Peter.

It'll be good when I do the remembrance service at the war memorial in November to have the correct name and rank for E Cope at last !

Are you going to publish or make available to the people of Penallt all the information you have placed into the new time capsule ?   I understood you were going to publish a book ?   Can I order a pre-publication copy ?!>

It was a great honour to be able to read out 2nd Lt Eric George Cope at the re-dedication along with the names of all the other officers and men. What we placed into the time capsule was three chapters from our book, obviously some of that now needs altering in light of who Cope was. When we knew we would get grant aid for the Memorial we delayed any publishing as we felt this would possibly solve the mystery. I will let you know about pre publication, the book launch etc. Next we have to meet the terms of our grant and hold a small exhibition in Penallt on the men who served and produce a very simple pamphlet for the schools and public of Penallt about the men as well. I have a friend who has a huge WWI collection ready for the display as well as uniforms and equipment that would have been used by the men of Penallt. It was wonderful to solve the mystery. I have also videoed every aspect of the dismantling and rebuilding and am considering making a short documentary film about the men and the memorial.