223937 Pte. Thomas Cyril Perry British Army 10th Battalion Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) from:Chilvers Coton, Nuneaton, Warwickshire (d.15th May 1916) Thomas Perry was born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire in 1894. He was one of five children born to William Edward Perry and Emma Jane Pugh. The family moved to Chilvers Coton, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire around 1896. In 1911 Thomas was a printer's apprentice, still living with his parents and siblings.
He enlisted in Nuneaton after the outbreak of war in 1914. Local regiments must have been oversubscribed because Thomas Perry was posted to 10th (Service) Battalion, Scottish Rifles then forming at Hamilton as part of "K2" - Kitchener's Second New Army.
Thomas Perry landed at Boulogne in France with his battalion on 10th July 1915 as part of 46 Brigade / 15th (Scottish) Division. The battalion entered the front line near Festubert in September 1915. At the Battle of Loos (25th September 1915) the battalion took it's objective - Hill 70 - but was later forced to retreat.
The 15th Division spent the 1915-1916 winter in the Loos area, holding the line at the Quarries, the Hohenzollern Redoubt and Hulluch. On 11th May 1916 the Germans launched an attack in the Quarries sector with very heavy artillery support. The main attack fell on the 13th Btn. The Royal Scots to the left of 10th Scottish Rifles. Over the next few days the latter were called upon to mount a series of counterattacks which failed to dislodge the Germans. Eventually a new British line was dug further back.
Thomas Perry must have been killed in one of the counterattacks or in the consolidation of the line that followed. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial at Dud Corner Cemetery and in Kidderminster Town Cemetery.
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