Edgar William Cox

Brigadier-General Edgar William Cox DSO, FRGS (9 May 1882 – 26 August 1918) was a senior intelligence officer on the British General Staff throughout most of the First World War.

He drowned in suspicious circumstances whilst swimming in August 1918 shortly after the German successes in the Spring Offensive, which drove the allied armies back a large distance.

Back in Britain and serving at Aldershot barracks, he was promoted to captain, married the South African Nora and became a governor of his former school, which had by this time moved to Horsham.

[4] His work was good enough that in August 1914 he was attached to the staff of Field Marshal Sir John French in charge of the British Expeditionary Force sent to France to counter the German invasion at the start of the First World War.

[4] Within two months of his arrival, on 21 March, the Germans launched the surprise Operation Michael, which recaptured all the ground gained during the Battle of the Somme two years before and nearly drove a hole right through the allied line.

Two weeks later, Operation Georgette wiped out the British advances of the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, seemingly undoing two years of bitter fighting in one blow.

"[4] Although officially his death was reported and recorded as an accident,[4][11] suspicions of suicide have remained given Cox's disturbed state of mind in the days before his fatal swim.