250834 Pte. Percival Mutimour Petch British Army 2nd Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment Percival Petch was my grandad. I never met him as he died before I was born. My dad told me that his dad had been a runner in the First World War and had suffered shellshock as a result.
I have found out that Percival joined the York and Lancs in 1911, as an infantryman, when he was 24 yrs old and he served in India before the Great War started. He survived the whole 4 years of the war and married my grandma as soon as the war was over in 1918. He was at the Battles of the Somme, Hooge and Ypres amongst others and would have played a vital role delivering messages between the posts. He must have been extremely brave to do such a thing as that amidst the shelling and mustard gas and the new arrival of tanks.
|