16333 Pte G. Percival; North'n R.

[regimentalrogue]

I've been asked by a senior lady in my wife's congregation if I could tidy up her father's medals. I was wondering if anyone could offer any details on his Great War service.

1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory medal impressed: 16333 Pte G. PERCIVAL NORTH'N R.

(The trio was accompanied by a Canadian Volunteer Service Medal (no clasp) and the War Medal for Second World War service. Also in the frame were a Canadian reunion pin for 1934 (Toronto) and a gold town sponsored tribute medallion from Dunwich, Ontario.)

[ss002d6252]

From his medal card he enlisted as a private on 10/11/1914 and was discharged on 19/01/1918.

[Stebie9173]

16333 Private George Percival served with the 2nd Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment according to his medal roll entry.

His campaign medals MIC shows arrival in France on 23-2-1915.

He was reported as Wounded as a Private per the Times of 8-4-1915, which coincides with other men on that list known to have been wounded with 2nd Bn. at Neuve Chapelle between 10th & 14th March 1915.

He was discharged under King's Regulations Paragraph KR 392 xvi due to sickness on 19th January 1918. SWB List K/271/1.

Address per MIC: J Weir, DSRC Representative, Room 10, 580 Talbot St., St Thomas, Ontario, Canada.

BWM/VM medal roll shows only 2nd Battalion BUT he may have served overseas again afterwards either with 2nd Battalion, or another battalion of the Regiment. The medal rolls are flawed in that respect.

Do you have a UK address for him?

Steve.

EDIT: I see he has some surviving service records. More in a bit....

[Stebie9173]

George Percival

Born at Aldershot, Hampshire.

Enlisted at Kettering, age 22 years and 1 months, on 10th November 1914

Posted to the Northamptonshire Regiment Depot, 11th November 1914

Posted to 3rd (Reserve) Battalion (who were at Weymouth) on 12th November 1914

Posted to 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment on 24th February 1915.

Embarked to France on 24th February 1915.

Joined 2nd Battalion in France.

Wounded - gunshot wound to right thigh (date not stated but almost certainly at Neuve Chapelle).

Evacuated to England wounded on 20th March 1915.

Posted to Depot for records purposes on 20th March 1915.

Posted to 3rd Reserve Battalion upon recovery on 23rd June 1915

Forfeits 16 days pay for absence without leave from 2nd to 18th August 1915.

Returned to France on 29th September 1915 and posted to 1st Battalion.

Leave to UK from 19th to 26th May 1916.

Evacuated to England sick and posted to Depot for Records purposes on 31st July 1917.

Discharged under King's Regulations Para 392 xvi (no long physically fit for duty due to bronchitis) on 19th January 1918.

Next of kin:

Brother - John L Percival, Uncle John Percival, and Aunt Susan Percival, of 59 Russell Street, Kettering.

There are six entries on his (mis-)Conduct Sheet (2 in the UK for absence, and 4 in France for general naughtiness) which I can add here if required.

I hope this helps.

Steve.

[regimentalrogue]

Steve, thank you very much. At this time I have no other background than the details on the medals. The lady is well on in years, and although a great-grandmother herself still gets in a few rounds of golf each week during the good weather, and I am certain that much of the information you have posted will be new to her.

I would appreciate the details of the charges on his conduct sheet, the lady is very good-humoured and will appreciate the thoroughness of the information without (I am certain) being discomfited by the knowledge. (I will, however, clear that with my wife, the Minister, before releasing the info.)

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Michael

[Stebie9173]

Michael,

His misdemeanours were:

23-7-1915 : Gillingham (3rd reserve Battalion). Absent from 6.15 & 9.15 parade - 8 days confined to barracks. Punishment laid down by Major Rawlins (witness: Sgt Barnes)

2-8-1915 : Gillingham (3rd reserve Battalion). Absent off {furlough} pass from 12 midnight on 2-8-1915 til 6 am on 18-8-1915 (15 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes) Punishment laid down by Lt. Col. de Crespigny (witnesses: Sgt Brittain, Sgt Holcombe). Forfeited 16 days pay.

18-12-1915 : "In the Field", Not complying with an order & absent from commanding officers parade - 2 days Field Punishment No. 2. Punishment laid down by Captain Marriott (witnesses Sgt. Cope, L/Cpl Hakes).

20-12-1915 : "In the Field", Improper reply and using obscene language to an N.C.O. - 2 days Confined to Barracks. Punishment laid down by Captain Marriott (witnesses: L/Cpl Pickard and L/Cpl Mitchell)

12-1-1916 : "In the Field", Disobedience to battalion orders. i.e. quitting a trench without permission and being found asleep in Posen Alley culvert improperly dressed (i.e. without equipment) - 14 days Field Punishment No. 2. Punishment laid down by Major Bethell (witnesses: Sgt Major Smith, Sec. Lt. Jacques)

11-11-1916 : "In the Field", When on active service, obtaining spirits contrary to G.R. orders - 3 days Field Punishment No. 1. Punishment laid down by Major T M Lowry.

George was in "D" Company of the 1st Northamptons.

Steve.

[regimentalrogue]

Steve, thank you so very much. Alice was very impressed by the amount of information you already provided and I look forward to passing her some more details.

She also confirmed that the Great War medals are her father's, while the Second World War pair are her brother's.

[Northants]

I have just seen this thread.

I have been corresponding with a distant cousin in Canada (who just happens to be the daughter of Alice mentioned in this thread). For completeness I thought it would be appropriate to add the attached photo .

Interestingly, George was himself the son of a military man. His father, also George Percival, served as a sergeant in the Northamptonshire Regiment from 31 Dec 1884–15 Aug 1891 and then again in 1900 when he rejoined as a Private with Volunteer Company Northamptonshire Regiment and went to the Boer War. He was soon repatriated with illness and died in 1901 leaving a wife and 6 young children. Following the death of their mother in 1903 the children were split between various family members. However, George (Junior) ended up in a Barnados home and was sent to Canada as a Home Boy in 1906.

According to the postcard he paid his own way back to UK from Canada to join the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1914. He records that he served in both the 1st and 2nd Northants Regiments, as well as the SWB (South Wales Borders) and the 173rd RE's (I assume Royal Engineers).

Was it common for soldiers to be posted to different regiments like this?

Following the war George returned to Canada.

Regards Peter

[Stebie9173]

He switched Northamptonshire Regiment battalions from 2nd to 1st on return to fitness after his wounding at Neuve Chapelle. He would have been sent back to the front from the 3rd Battalion at Chatham / Gillingham after discharge from hospital. There was generally a short period of home leave allowed immediately after hospital discharge. The 3rd Battalion generally supplied 1st and 2nd Battalions with reinforcements at this point of the war. The 1st Battalion took heavy casualties at Loos on 25th September 1915 and he was a replacement for those.

The Royal Engineers Company would be the 173rd Tunnelling Company of the Royal Engineers - it was often the case that men were attached to tunnelling companies for short periods. Often these would be mentioned on his record, but sometimes not. he would only be officially transferred if the attachment was made permanent.

I'm not sure where the 1st South Wales Borderers reference comes from. It may be post-war? I see that he is in St Thomas, Ontario by 1920.

Steve.

[Northants]

Steve,

Thanks for the information. I'll take a look at 173rd Tunnelling Company, there is nothing noted in the few pages of his service record that refers to his time with them.

In regard to SWB, I thought overnight that this may in fact refer to the Silver War Badge, which he did receive, but on looking at the postcard again today, it does not appear to imply that.

Cheers Peter

[Northants]

I have been able to solve the puzzle of how George claimed to have been with the 1st SWBs during his service period. During a visit to Canada last year I stopped in at my cousin's farm just outside London Ontario and she gave me a copy of a handwritten account that George wrote about his involvement with them. From that I had a date of 19 Jan 1916 to refer to the Unit Diary for the 1Bn Northants:

 

13 Jan LILLIERS   No. 17 Platoon formed under Capt Humphry, and attached for duty to 1st S.W. Borderers as part of the LOOS garrison.

 

George provides a very graphic account of the actions of the S.W.B. at Hart's Crater in Loos. I do not believe that George ever did get the DSM that is mentioned (I can't find any records for it). He did however get a trip to Blighty as his records show 21/5/16 Granted leave to UK from 19/5/16 to 26/5/16 (OC 1/NN).  

 

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In the Spring of 1916 I was serving in France with the 1^st Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment. At this time the South Wales Borderers were hard pressed for reinforcements and volunteers were asked for from our Regiment to help them out until such time as they could get reinforcements of their own from Wales. I was one of a number who volunteered to go and help them. 

 

During the time that I was with them an attack was made on Hart’s Crater [19^th February 1916], a large mine crater on the Loos Front. It was a night attack, the men of the Northamptons were detailed as a carrying party in the evening and we were loaded up with Mills Bombs & Rifle Ammunition which we took to the front line trench and awaited zero hour. At last the Bombing Party arrived and the Artillery started their straffing, bombs were distributed and at 9-30 the attack started. It was stiff going, the white chalk crater was continually lit up by verey lights and our men were made

 

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good targets on the side of the crater, in a few minutes word was passed back [to] the trench that not one of those Mills Bombs were detonated, therefore useless & causing more casualtys [sic] because the Germans were well entrenched & bombs were the only thing with which they could be driven out. I was not a bomber but volunteered to detonate all the bombs if they would pass them back to me and so saying I immediately opened up a box of them & started right in to work, this cased a commotion among the men around me because to detonate bombs even in daylight was a dangerous business & many accidents often occurred, the night was very dark with no moon and very few stars shining; however I climbed up on the top of the parapet sat down right there and continued to detonate bombs as they were passed up to me, the other men were no so much afraid of me then and I continued my self-appointed job until no more could be found to detonate.

 

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In the meantime the S.W.B’s led by Lieutenant Walsh were loseing [sic] scores of men, the enemy were shelling them with Whiz Bangs and Trench Mortars, and as I watched the Crater from where I sat quite a number of men rolled from top to bottom with their clothes & equipment on fire, the Germans were evidently using both tracer & explosive bullets so that when a man was hit his clothes caught fire. I believe also the trench mortar shells or at least some of them contained oil of some kind; one of my best friends came along badly wounded, I jumped into the trench to examine him and dress his wound; the bullet had entered his chest just missing the breast bone a very small hole but where it came out just below his left arm-pit you could easily put your fist into the cavity. I dressed him as best I could and directed him to the dressing station. The men in the trench were now getting thinned out as more & more were sent

 

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forward to the Crater. Then someone passed the order down to extend along the trench to the left as the enemy was preparing to counter attack and our objective at the Crater was not yet taken. I found myself almost on the extreme left of our line. I mounted the fire step opened a box of bombs & prepared to give Jerry a welcome; after some ten minutes of waiting and watching I heard Captain English (S.W.Bs’) asking a man if he knew where Lieut’ Walsh was & if he could go to him with a message; the man said he did not know; the officer asked a second man and then a third but each of them said he didn’t even know how to get to the Mine Crater. I jumped off my fire step & ran around the traverse, there stood Captain English asking another man if he would try & take a message to Lieut’ Walsh. I said I’ll beg your pardon Sir but I’ll take that message; he said it’s very risky, you may lose your life getting to him, however he gave me the message in writing and told me

 

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that if I found him (Lieut’ Walsh) I was to wait and get a written reply and bring back to him as quickly as possible because he feared we were loseing [sic] too many men and might have to withdraw if the position was not consolidated before daylight. I struck off at a run in the direction of the Crater and after several close calls from bursting shells I reached it, I lay down a minute or so to get my wind & look the situation over before going up the side of that Crater; dead and dying men were everywhere and I could see when Jerry sent up his lights that our men were near the top (this was a large Crater) trying to dig themselves in. A German Machine Gun was killing a lot of our men by enfilade fire evert time a light went up, our men showed up so plain against the white chalk. At last I made a rush up the Crater and reached some of our men they told me I would find Lieut’ Walsh more around to the side closer to the enemy, the

 

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Bombs & shells were still coming over and taking their toll, however I managed to crawl around to where I at last found my Officer handing him the message and telling him what Captain English had told me. It was a dangerous place to try to write a message but his orderly and I dug out a hole in the chalk with our entrenching tools, the orderly held a flashlight in the hole, I held his steel helmet and my own around the hole while the brave Lieut’ wrote out his reply message lying on his stomach with his notepad in the hole we had dug, luckily the Huns did not see our small light or that message would not have been written. The Officer remarked to me that a Machine Gun was playing hell with his men and he could not get close enough to put it out of action, he told me if I should get wounded on my way back to try and hand the message to someone else to carry as it was important that Captain English get it. However I got safely

 

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Back to where I had last seen the Captain, some men in the trench informed me that he thought I had got killed and had gone to H.Q. dug out. I raced down the communication trench and found Captain English, he had been to see the Colonel. I gave him the message and he went into the dugout telling me to wait there at the entrance for further orders. In a few minutes he called up and asked my name and regimental number. The Colonel said something I did not quite catch and then Captain English came up again, told me I had done a fine job and would hear further of this and would I go back to the Crater and tell Lieut’ Walsh to carry on until further orders and to stay myself and help out if at all possible and returned to the Crater; I found my Officer with les trouble this time and delivered the verbal message; he thanked me and took my name & Regimental Number

 

Page 8

The men were still digging in as best they could, while others near the top of the Crater, while others were making another trench to connect up with the main front line trench but all the time our men were being enfiladed by that German Machine Gun. Lieut’ Walsh kept saying he was afraid that the men would retire down the Crater side if that damned Gun kept up its deadly work. I said to him that if we had a machine gun of our own I thought we could put Jerry’s gun out of action, because we could plainly se its position every time they opened up with it. I asked the Officer if I could go back and find a machine gun crew. He said that he had sent a man back some time before but the word had been passed that the man had been killed and that no machine gunners were left, he said however that I might try my luck if I wished; off I struck and started making enquiries up the trench for machine gunners as men directed me

 

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To where they thought I could find them. At last I found a man who said he was a machine gunner but that the rest of his team had been killed and their gun smashed up by a shell, he said that I might find other gunners back in the support line which ran partly through the ruins of the village of Loos, over the top I ran and made the support trench. I don’t know how, the air was alive with bullets, the ground thick with old wire, shell holes and all manner of debris. At last I found two men with a Lewis Gun and told them they were wanted Up on the Crater at once, that it meant life or death for our men up there trying to hold the position, they argued that they could not leave where they were and after some minutes I could see that their minds made up not to go with me. I said alright give me the gun and an extra pan of ammunition I’ll take it up there; they gave it to me and I started off and had got as far as a ruined house when I heard

 

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the gunners behind me, one of them said alright buddy we’ll go with you, so we started off over the top towards the Crater all at once there was a terrific crash right beside us; I lay there in the mud for some time trying to figure out what had happened. I could not see anyone near me and then I remembered the Gun I had been carrying. I got to my knees and discovered first the extra pan of ammo with the strap through it was still attached to my shoulder and some ten feet away lay the Lewis Gun. Once more I started off with it and this time I reached the Crater, I worked myself up the backside of it (side facing our support trench) and when I got to the top I found I would have to work around more to my left and about ten feet below me, gradually I got my Lewis into position and waited for Jerry to start again so I could be sure of getting him.

 

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I was not sure I knew how to reload the gun with my extra pan of ammo and that I might have to depend on the one pan in the gun, just then a grenade came over and burst just below me, I figured that they had spotted me and decided to act quickly so when Jerry opened up the next time I let them have it emptying my gun in two blasts right into them, I lay there quiet for several minutes , I could hear glutteral [sic] voices calling out in pain, one of our men shouted “he’s done it, he’s done it” and then several men gave a rousing yell. I started to try my hand at reloading the Lewis Gun when bang I felt myself tumbling down the Crater and then all went black, I do not know how long I was out but when I came too [sic] it was getting daylight and I could see I was lying at the foot of the Crater right in the open. I felt stiff and sore all over my body and my head felt terrible. The enemy must have located me and the Lewis with a shell of some kind, I felt myself all over but

 

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Decided I had not been wounded. I commenced to crawl back and came upon a wounded man his bowels were protruding but he was conscious he told me that we should have had more artillery preparation before we attempted to take that Crater. I will never forget how rational he talked and the terrible wound he had, it seemed all unreal lying there with him. At last I said I would crawl back and see if I could find stretcher bearers to get him in, he said not to bother about him he was done for anyhow, however I started back towards the Village promising him to send help, things seemed to have got very quiet except for an occasional sniper trying his luck at myself and other men who were unlucky enough to be above ground. I got back into Loos still half dazed and all in at last I found some of the men of my Regiment (Northants attached to S.W.Bs) in a cellar a Corporal and a Sergeant with five or six men, they gave me some hot coffee with rum in it and I was soon sound

 

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asleep, the men told me afterwards I slept for ten hours, the Sergeant had given me a big rum issue in that coffee. All kinds of questions were asked of me by the men, they said they had been relieved just before daylight, that I had been reported killed on the Crater, the Sergeant had gone to H.Qs while I slept and reported me still living and he now told me that both Captain English and Lieutenant Walsh had recommended me for the Distinguished Conduct Medal and I would get four days leave to England for my nights work. I was not feeling very good and was not much interested at the time in what they were telling me. However in a few days I was notified of my good fortune by Lieutenant Walsh and off I went to Blighty.