Current Information:

Age-22

Etaples Military Cemetery, France

Robert Coppard died from polyneuritis on 3rd August, 1917, while serving with the Royal Engineers in France..

The Special Companies of the Royal Engineers were an invention of the First World War and were established to develop and use the new weapon of gas. They came into operation in September, 1915, and were a response to the use of gas by the Germans at Ypres in April of that year. As the war continued, the use of gas by both sides grew enormously and the Special Companies were grouped together into Special Battalions and finally a Special Brigade was established to oversee the whole operation. At first the principle means of delivering gas was from cylinders but as the war progressed, gas shells, fired from 4 inch mortars became more common. However at the time of the Battle of the Somme it was gas from cylinders that was used by the British Army and was a mixture of chlorine and phosgene called ‘White Star’. The Special Companies also took charge of flame throwers when they arrived in France in June 1916.