World War Two: Lance Corporal Anthony Montague Garrett-Cox - Intelligence Corps - Died by Suicide, and his brother Lieutenant Guy Henry Garrett-Cox Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve H.M.S Helca - Torpedoed off the Coast of Morocco

Sometimes when you set out to research a person you stumble onto tales of bravery and tragedy.  This is one such story.

What intrigued me about this family at first was the fact that Lance Corporal Anthony Montague Garrett-Cox is the only war grave in the small churchyard of St Luke's Church in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  Why was Anthony here on his own when his comrades in both world wars that died at home were buried at All Saints Maidenhead Cemetery?

Details where few and far between.  I managed to find out through the Commonwealth War Graves commission that Anthony's parents were R Garrett-Cox and Gladys Irene Garrett-Cox of Maidenhead.  Their double barrelled surname, instead of making research easier, made it much harder.  Through searching the name via Google I discovered that a second Garrett-Cox, Lieutenant G H Garrett-Cox, had served and died in the Second World War and was commemorated along side Anthony on the Maidenhead War Memorial.  This was too much of a coincidence, they had to be related in some way.

Searching with the forename Garrett and the surname Cox, I was able to find Lieutenant Guy Henry Garrett-Cox's information on the Commonwealth War Graves website.  Lieutenant Guy Henry Garrett-Cox served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve aboard the H.M.S Helca and died on 12th November 1942.

Guy Henry and Anthony Montague were brothers.  Both were born in Maidenhead to Samuel Henry Reuben Garrett-Cox, A music professor and organist at St Luke's Church in Maidenhead, and Gladys Irene Carter.  Guy Henry had been born in 1911 and Anthony Montague on 27th October 1914.  They were Reuben and Gladys's only children.

Anthony Montague appears on the 1939 Register living in Hollow Road, Bury St Edumunds, Suffolk, where he was working as an executive at the British Sugar factory.

Just before the outbreak of World War Two on 1st May 1939, Guy Henry married Rosemary Simpson-Hayward in Celyon, Colombo.  On 17th September 1941 they celebrated the birth of their son, Martin Hayward Garrett-Cox.

Anthony enlisted with the Intelligence Corps of the British Army and was sent to Mauritius.  Guy enlisted with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and was stationed on the H.M.S Helca.

During his time in Mauritius, Anthony was attacked and left for dead, he returned home to England where he was sent to hospital.  Sadly the attack in Mauritius left more than physical scars for Anthony and on 4th August 1941, Anthony took his own life.  The Derby Evening Telegraph reported on 6th August 1941 -

"INJURED AND LEFT FOR DEAD

The suggestion that his mind may have been affected by an attack in Mauritius three years ago was made at the Westminster Inquest, to-day, on Lance Corporal Anthony Montague Garrett-Cox, aged 26, of the Intelligence Corps, who shot himself through the head with a revolver.

His father, Mr, Reuben Garrett-Cox, of Maidenhead, said that in Mauritius his son had been struck on the head eight times with a motor jack, and left for dead. 

He was in hospital for three months.

Recording a verdict that the Lance Corporal 'committed suicide while of unsound mind.' The coroner said that the Mauritius injury might have had some bearing on the state of his mind."


It must have been a terrible shock for Anthony's parents ,and brother.  To get their loved one back from the brink of death, only to lose him three years later.  Sadly, tragedy was about the strike the family again.  Just fifteen months later, Mr and Mrs R. Garrett-Cox were to lose their only surviving child, Guy.

Between the 11th and 12th November 1942, the H.M.S Helca was torpedoed just off the coast of Morocco by a German U-Boat U-515.   Of the 838 men aboard, 556 were rescued, 12 known to have been killed and 273 reported missing, presumed killed.  Lieutenant Guy Henry Garrett-Cox was one of the missing, presumed dead .  Guy Henry Garrett-Cox's body was never recovered.  He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and the Maidenhead War Memorial.

On 2nd December 1942 the Maidenhead Advertiser reported:

"Lieut. G. H. Garrett Cox, R.N.V.R.

Reported Missing.

Mr. and Mrs. R Garrett Cox, 16, Craufurd Rise, Maidenhead, have been informed that their son, Lieut.. Guy Henry Garrett Cox, R.N.V.R., has been reported missing.

Lieut. Garrett Cox was born in Maidenhead and was educated at Eastbourne College. On leaving school he went to Ceylon as a tea planter. He was a member of the Ceylon Mounted Defence Rifles for ten years and he joined the Navy in 1940. Aged thirty, he leaves a widow and a small son aged one year. In 1939 he married Rosemary, daughter of  the late Capt. G. H. Simpson-Hayward and Mrs Simpson-Hayward Icomb Place, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire.

Mr. and Mrs. Garrett Cox's younger son, Mr. Anthony Montague Garrett Cox (26), who was in the Intelligence Corps, died a year ago."

In that same issue the following announcement appeared:

"Deaths

Garrett-Cox.- In November, 1942, missing, presumed killed in action, Lieut. G. H. Garrett-Cox, R.N.V.R., dearly-loved husband of Rosemary and father of Martin, Icomb Place, Stow-on-the-Wold, only surviving son of parents at Maidenhead. No letters please."

For more information on the torpedoing of the H.M.S. Helca and the resulting rescue efforts, please click here.

Rosemary remarried in 1953 to Jeston Homfray in Westminster, Middlesex, they later emigrated to Victoria, Australia, where Rosemary passed away on 17th October 1985. Rosemary and Guy's son Martin was to pass away on 24th October 2003 In Dunblane, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

Samuel Henry Reuben Garrett-Cox passed away in 1966 in Maidenhead and Gladys Irene passed away on 20th October 1980 in Maidenhead.  The loss of both their sons must have weighed greatly upon them.