Name
Percy Charles Wilkins
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/10/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/15564
Royal Sussex Regiment
11th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GRANDCOURT ROAD CEMETERY, GRANDCOURT
A. 13.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Ashwell Village Memorial, St Mary’s Church Roll of Honour, Ashwell
Pre War
Percy Charles Wilkins was born in 1898 in Holloway, Middlesex, the son of Charles and Mary Jane Wilkins (nee Winter) and baptised on 16 April 1898 in Ashwell. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell and was one of nine children, although a sister Eliza died in 1891 aged 6 and brother Prime Frederick died in 1908 aged 17.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Swan Street, Ashwell, where his father was working as a horsekeeper on a farm. His mother died in 1906, aged 38, and on the 1911 Census Percy was living with his widowed father and siblings Hilda, Albert and Edward at Swan Street. His father re-married later the same year to Martha Louisa Brown who had two children from a previous marriage.
His father later lived at Kingsland Terrace, Ashwell and Lime Kiln Lane, Ashwell.
Wartime Service
Percy enlisted in Hertford in April 1915 and initially served with the Hertfordshire Regiment, under reg. no. 4921, later transferring to the Royal Sussex Regiment and serving with the 11th Battalion in France.
He was killed in action on 21 October 1916 and is buried at Grandcourt Road Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £6 and pay owing of £3 1s 11d. His stepmother Martha Louisa Wilkins received a dependant's pension of 4s 6d a week.
Brothers Harry, Arthur and Albert all served in the war but survived.
(N.B. the Register of Soldiers Effects as well as pension records suggest Percy was initially missing presumed dead).
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, www.ashwellmuseum.org.uk
