ANTHONY COTTERELL - A Newspaper Man in Service Harness
Anthony Cotterell - a tribute
Anthony Cotterell was a very rare thing, a soldier-journalist who had such an unusual curriculum vitae that he has been mistakenly described in recent years as a Medical Officer or a War Correspondent. He was neither; he was a conscripted journalist, who then went on to write extremely readable books and articles about soldiers' lives in the Second World War.
His book, "RAMC", about the Royal Army Medical Corps, is so authoritative that it appears to have been written by a doctor, hence the Medical Officer error (Anthony had, in fact, for a brief period in 1935-6 been at Guy's Hospital in London, taking combined medical and dental studies).
The War Correspondent error is more complicated. He was attached to the War Office, and in particular the Army Bureau of Affairs, and all his reporting was done under official auspices rather than for newspapers or the BBC. However, ABCA and the War Office valued his immense talents, and he was allowed great freedom of thought and action.
Anthony had a voracious, enquiring, and energetically curious mind, and when he boned up on a subject, he did so with great thoroughness and seriousness. Yet he never lost his supreme ability to entertain. He was exceedingly witty and all his writings (except the most dutiful) are stuffed full with jokes and frequently laugh-out-loud funny.
Anthony is not only interesting for himself (he was a genial and much loved friend, comrade, brother, and son) but also because he positioned himself at the very heart of Army affairs. His early writings range from what the first eight weeks of training for a conscript soldier were like, to the Royal Army Medical Corps, to the protection of Britain from air raids, to the ATS (at the time a much maligned service in which women in uniform did the work formerly reserved for men).
And then there was 'WAR'. The first issue of this fortnightly magazine was on September 20th 1941 and it ran for 97 issues, the last being on June 23rd 1945. His articles in 'WAR' tell much of his dedication to sharing the lives and dangers of men on active service. He flew on several bombing raids, either with the United States Air Force or the RAF. He was with the troops in France on D-Day in June 1944, and later experienced at first hand a Normandy tank battle.
Then in September 1944 he went to Arnhem, and it was in that heroic, bloody shambles that he lost his life, aged 27 years old. His death was all the more tragic because he was essentially a non-combatant, who had never been particularly athletic or suited to the rigours of military life.
The many thousands of words he wrote in his four years in the Army, from 1940 to 1944, are his memorial, and a memorial to all the other lives he shared.
JENNIE GRAY
His book, "RAMC", about the Royal Army Medical Corps, is so authoritative that it appears to have been written by a doctor, hence the Medical Officer error (Anthony had, in fact, for a brief period in 1935-6 been at Guy's Hospital in London, taking combined medical and dental studies).
The War Correspondent error is more complicated. He was attached to the War Office, and in particular the Army Bureau of Affairs, and all his reporting was done under official auspices rather than for newspapers or the BBC. However, ABCA and the War Office valued his immense talents, and he was allowed great freedom of thought and action.
Anthony had a voracious, enquiring, and energetically curious mind, and when he boned up on a subject, he did so with great thoroughness and seriousness. Yet he never lost his supreme ability to entertain. He was exceedingly witty and all his writings (except the most dutiful) are stuffed full with jokes and frequently laugh-out-loud funny.
Anthony is not only interesting for himself (he was a genial and much loved friend, comrade, brother, and son) but also because he positioned himself at the very heart of Army affairs. His early writings range from what the first eight weeks of training for a conscript soldier were like, to the Royal Army Medical Corps, to the protection of Britain from air raids, to the ATS (at the time a much maligned service in which women in uniform did the work formerly reserved for men).
And then there was 'WAR'. The first issue of this fortnightly magazine was on September 20th 1941 and it ran for 97 issues, the last being on June 23rd 1945. His articles in 'WAR' tell much of his dedication to sharing the lives and dangers of men on active service. He flew on several bombing raids, either with the United States Air Force or the RAF. He was with the troops in France on D-Day in June 1944, and later experienced at first hand a Normandy tank battle.
Then in September 1944 he went to Arnhem, and it was in that heroic, bloody shambles that he lost his life, aged 27 years old. His death was all the more tragic because he was essentially a non-combatant, who had never been particularly athletic or suited to the rigours of military life.
The many thousands of words he wrote in his four years in the Army, from 1940 to 1944, are his memorial, and a memorial to all the other lives he shared.
JENNIE GRAY
