JOSEPH COOKSLEY

Two men from Coutts Island were killed on the same day, 18 June 1917. The first of these men was Sergeant Joseph Cooksley. Joseph Elijah Cooksley had been born in the Christchurch suburb of Woolston in 1890 and before volunteering to serve had worked as a teamster on Mr Belcher's Kaiapoi farm. He had enlisted on 20 October 1915, and although initially serving in the Army Service Corps in Egypt utilising his pre-war driving skills, he was transferred to the 3rd Battery of the New Zealand Field Artillery. Having served through the Somme battles, he was promoted from Acting Bombadier in November 1916 through Temporary Corporal to Temporary Sergeant in April 1917. After three weeks training at the Division's School of Instruction, he returned to his unit and had his rank of Sergeant confirmed. Six weeks later, he was killed in action, possibly by German counter-battery artillery fire, and was buried in the Trois Arbres Cemetery near Steenwerck in northern France.

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