Soldier Record

Percival Robert Humphreys, my Great Uncle, volunteered in the first week of the war, joining the 5th Battalion of the Essex Regiment in Chelmsford on August 9th 1914 alongside his older brother William Harvey Humphreys. After their year Embodied Service at home they were sent to the Balkans and eventually to Palestine where Percival, by then a Sergeant, was killed on March 26th, 1917 at the First Battle of Gaza. He was finally laid to rest in the Jerusalem War Cemetery, and his sacrifice is commemorated on the war memorial in St Mary's Church, Little Baddow, Essex. He left a widow, Edith (nee Baynes), a son, John, and (I believe) a daughter, Gwendoline, who was not born until after her father's death.

William survived the war, as did their brother Charles Frederick Symington Humphreys, my Grandfather (b.1882). Charlie was in South Africa at the outbreak of hostilities and joined the army there, returning home to fight on the Western Front where he lost his left arm and his right thumb in separate actions.

Lest we forget.