Cyril Raymond Percival Cottrill – 94th Training Reserve Battalion

Private Cyril Raymond Percival Cottrill – 94^th  Training Reserve Battalion

Birth and Family Background

Cyril Raymond Percival Cottrill was born in 1900 in Croydon, Surrey, the son of Frederick Percy Cottrill and Bessie Evelyn Lamb, who were married in 1898 at St. Saviour’s Church, Warwick Avenue, Paddington.

1901 Census

The 1901 Census records the family living at 36 Stratfield Road, St. Giles, Oxfordshire. Frederick, aged 23 and born in Manchester, was employed as a Dental Mechanic, while his wife Evelyn, also 23 and born in Essex, was managing the home. Their only child at this time was Cyril, aged 1.

1911 Census

By the 1911 Census, the family had moved to 1 Bay View Terrace, Mumbles. Frederick, now 33, is recorded as an Artificial Teeth Maker, and Evelyn is 32. Their children were Cyril, aged 11 and attending school; Doreen, aged 9, born in Oxford; and Rowland, aged 4, born in Swansea.

Military Service

Attestation Papers

Cyril’s surviving Attestation Papers state that he enlisted in July 1916 as a Private, serving with the 94^th Training Reserve Battalion. The battalion formed part of the British Army’s Training Reserve, created in 1916 to provide centralised instruction for newly enlisted soldiers before they were allocated to front-line regiments. Young recruits like Cyril—often only sixteen or seventeen—underwent intensive training in drill, musketry, bayonet fighting, physical conditioning, fieldcraft, and gas defence, supervised by experienced instructors. Conditions in the training camps were demanding: accommodation was crowded, training was rigorous, and respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and influenza were common. Cyril was stationed at Chiseldon Camp, a major wartime training centre in Wiltshire, known both for its extensive training grounds and for the cold, damp environment that contributed to outbreaks of illness among recruits.

Death

Cyril Raymond Percival Cottrill
Southampton Old Cemetery
credit - findagrave

The Welshman

Cambrian Daily Leader

Cyril died on 7^th May 1917 from pneumonia while undergoing training at Chiseldon Camp. An account of his death appeared in The Welshman, which reported that he was buried with full military honours at Southampton Old Cemetery. A further obituary was published in The Cambrian Daily Leader.