Percy Williams was born in January 1897 at Wellington, Shropshire. He was the third child of John and Mary Williams, he had 2 elder and 1 younger sister, Rebecca, Alice and Amelia. There had been 9 children but only 6 survived By 1901 they were living at Southalls Buildings on Willow Street, Oswestry. His father was a market hawker dealing in earthenware pots. He cannot be found in the 1911 census but his parents were living at 7 Orchard Street they would later move to Rope Walk and then to Oswald Row. By the outbreak of war Percy was working as a porter at Port Sunlight on the Wirral.

Percy enlisted at Birkenhead on 3 September 1914 giving his home address as 5 Rope Walk, Oswestry  – he gave his age as 18½ but, based on birth and census data he was 17½ years. He joined the 10 Bn Cheshire Regiment (Wirral Pals). He was not an entirely model soldier incurring sanctions 3 times for being absent or overstaying his leave pass. He went over to France on 25 September 1915. He was wounded and suffered from shell shock during the Somme offensive in July 1916 and spent about a week in hospital at Rouen. He returned to the front and was posted to 13 Bn Cheshires. In October 1916 he was awarded the Military Medal during the fighting on Ancre Heights on the Somme and the actions at Stuff Redoubt and Regina Trench.

He was wounded again in December 1916, this time hit by bomb fragments in the arm and chest and from concussion. He was sent back to ‘Blighty’ and was in hospital at Cardiff returning to the Regimental base depot at Chester in January 1917. At Chester he again faced disciplinary action, this time for being drunk on Foregate Street in Chester and violently resisting arrest. In March he was posted to Knowsley – again, more sanctions, this time for overstaying his pass, going AWOL and breaking out of camp whilst under punishment – before he had been fined and confined to barracks, this time he was given 7 days Field Punishment Number 2. He returned to France in July 1917, posted first to 1 Bn Cheshires and then to 6 Bn. Despite his disciplinary record he was promoted Corporal on 9 August 1917. In the same month he again spent time in hospital, this time suffering from Pleurisy – probably contracted due to the unsanitary conditions. He was KIA on 24 September 1917 in the front line at Bassevillebeek during the Battle of Menin Road and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, he has no known grave.

Acknowledgements.

References and Sources

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