Soldier Record

My grandfather 'Percy' Harper, was wounded in action in France on 9th December 1917, and initially pronounced dead. My grandmother Bertha, received a telegram saying that he had been killed in action, leaving her widowed with three young children, my aunts May and Amy and my Uncle Henry, who were then aged 5, 3 and 2 years old.

With no identity tag, it was not until he regained consciousness that he could be identified, and the second telegram confirming that he was alive was immediately sent to my grandmother.

She was so inconsolable that worried neighbours ran for the village midwife and matriarch, a Mrs Holcroft, who was also well known locally as a clairvoyant. She came immediately and told my grandmother not to distress herself as she had 'seen' Percy, who was badly wounded but not dead, and that another telegram would arrive saying that he was among the injured in a field hospital.

The second telegram duly arrived a few days later.

The truth of what had actually happened to Percy was revealed when he was transferred from France to an Army hospital in London shortly before Christmas 1917, and is as follows:

In the chaos of retrieving dead and wounded soldiers from the battlefield, he had indeed been pronounced dead, his identity tag had been removed, and he had been placed on a cart alongside other dead soldiers awaiting burial.

Obviously he himself had no knowledge of what had happened, but he had been told in the field hospital that when he was taken from the cart for burial, one of the soldiers in the burial party saw his eyes flicker and shouted that he might still be alive.

With no identity tag, it was not until he regained consciousness that he could be identified, and the second telegram confirming that he was alive was immediately sent to my grandmother.

A lucky man indeed, he went on to have 6 more children, among them my mother Marjorie, 13 grandchildren among them me, 18 great grandchildren, and now the beginnings of a fourth generation of great great grandchildren.

He lived on into old age, to see his beloved wife Bertha become the matriarch, and the family he had fought for grow and prosper.

He was much loved and respected by us all, and especially by my aunt Amy, who at 95 years old is the last surviving of his children.

God bless and keep you grandad on behalf of us all.