John Taylor and Ann Norman have submitted the following:
Henry Edward Codling was born in Cambo Northumberland in about 1888, the fourth of six children of Henry and Mary Codling. On the 1911 census he lived at Sandy Lane and with his parents, one brother and one sister, and was employed as a bookbinder.
He served as a Private in the Durham Light Infantry, regimental number 36770. He later transferred to the 191st Machine Gun Company, part of the Machine Gun Corps, with the regimental number 58559. On 26th January 1918 he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. His citation reads:
“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. At a critical moment during an attack his gun came under heavy shell-fire and all the team became casualties. Although he himself was wounded in the face, he kept his gun in action single-handed, in spite of continual shelling, and remained at his post until reinforcements arrived, displaying exceptional pluck and devotion to duty.”
He was killed in action on the Western Front on 1st June 1918. He is buried in plot: I. BB. 8 at the Marfaux British Cemetery, Marfaux, Departement de la Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France.
He is remembered in Cambo on C5.01 and in Eighton Banks on E50.01 and E50.02
