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Samuel Corker (1896-1917)


From Burnhope, served with the 1st/6th DLI, killed in action at Arras.


Samuel was born in Burnhope on 8 February 1896. He was the fifth son and sixth child of Adam Corker, a coal miner, and his wife, Elizabeth. The family, parents and eight children, were living at 14 Fell Row, Lanchester in 1901. Samuel attended Bearpark Board Mixed School for a year in 1905-1906. By 1911 the family had moved to West Terrace, Burnhope, where Samuel was a pony driver in the local colliery.

When the First World War began, Samuel enlisted in his local Territorial Force battalion – 1st/6th Battalion The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) – but, sadly, little is known about his military service as his papers have not survived.

3101 Private Samuel Corker was killed in action on 14 April 1917 during the Battle of Arras, when the 1st/6th Battalion DLI unsuccessfully attacked on Wancourt Ridge. He was 21 years old.

Samuel’s body was never recovered but his name is remembered on the Arras Memorial to the Missing in France.

For more information:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/745561/corker,-samuel/

North East War Memorials Project:
http://www.newmp.org.uk/detail.php?contentId=6480
http://www.newmp.org.uk/detail.php?contentId=10111

Civil Parish: Lanchester

Birth date: 08-Feb-1896

Death date: 14-Apr-1917

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: 14 Fell Row, Lanchester (1901 census)
17 Dyson Street, Bearpark (1905 school record)
32 West Terrace, Burnhope (1911 census)

Education: Bearpark Board Mixed School (13 November 1905 to 1 September 1906)

Employment: Pony driver below ground in coalmine
Putter, Burnhope Colliery (Ritson, Burnhope and Pontop Collieries, roll of honour)

Family: Father: Adam Corker, underground coal hewer, (seems died before 1917 as mother given as Next of Kin on CWGC site)
Mother: Elizabeth Corker
Brothers: Joseph Corker (b 1886), John Corker (b 1888), Alfred Corker (b 1890), Adam Corker (b 1891), Thomas William Corker (b 1898), Henry Corker (b 1901), David Corker (b 1903)
Sisters: Margaret Ann Corker (b 1893), Elizabeth Corker (b 1906)

Military service:

3101 (later 273087) Private, 1st/6th Battalion The Durham Light Infantry.

Medal(s): 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal.

Memorial(s): Arras Memorial, France
Burnhope Memorial Garden
Saint John the Evangelist Church, Holmside Lane, Burnhope, plaque and book of remembrance
Ritson, Burnhope and Pontop Collieries, roll of honour
Durham Light Infantry Book of Remembrance, Durham Cathedral

Gender: Male

Contributed by Harold P, Durham. | With additional research by Burnhope War Memorial Research Group & Durham County Record Office.