John P Cottingham
Kentucky Post, Wednesday, 31 October 1917, page 1
John White, Newport Patrolman, has received a letter dated Oct 7 from his nephew, John P Cottingham, somewhere in France. Cottingham enlisted in the Army some months ago. Previous to the time of his enlistment he made his home with his uncle, John White, of 425 Elm st. Newport. The soldier boy is enjoying good health and expresses anxiety to get into the big war for democracy.
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Kentucky Post, Saturday, 8 June 1918, page 4
John Cottingham, Brighton st. Newport, who according to information received by John White, patrolman, was wounded severely two months ago in the front line trenches in France, has sufficiently recovered to return to the firing line. White received a letter from Cottingham Thursday. Cottingham was wounded in the face. He wrote Ben Simmons, his chum, who was injured about the arms and legs, has not been able to leave the hospital.
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Kentucky Post, Monday, 24 June 1918, page 3
Raymond Prout, Seventh and Brighton streets, Newport, who was injured in battle on the western Front, is the third of 11 soldier chums from the same neighborhood to meet similar fate in France. Prout was injured in action several days ago, but his mother was not notified until Saturday night.
John Cottingham and Ben Simmons, Prout's chums, were wounded in the same engagement several weeks ago. It is understood Cottingham has returned to the battle line.
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Kentucky Post, Wednesday, 21 August 1918, page 1
The German soldier is yellow, according to Private Charles Slimmer of Newport, who is on the western front with Co I Ninth Infantry. Young Slimmer in a letter to John Dunnigan, Fourth and Patterson Streets, Newport, says that "Fritz" will not fight when cornered, but "will throw up his mitts and squeal kamerad."
In his description of a recent battler Slimmer said: "When the Huns yelled kamerad we took them prisoner and then went after the rest of the yellow bunch. Every American went over the top determined to get as many as possible. We chased them from early in the morning until late that night. I got thru all right. It was some job ducking machine gun bullets. I was lucky but Ches Dues and John Cottingham both Newport boys whose names recently were mentioned in the list of wounded got theirs. Both were shot while right near me.