Name
Percy McCarthy
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4894
East Surrey Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 6 B and 6 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Percy McCarthy was born in 1890 in St Pancras, Islington, Middlesex, the son of Thomas and Francis McCarthy and the youngest of eight children.
On the 1891 Census, the family were living at 49 Repton Street, St Pancras, where his father gave his occupation as Printer's Pressman Unemployed.
His father died in 1893 and on the 1901 Census only Harry and Percy were living at home with their mother at Chester Road, St Pancras, where his mother was working as a dressmaker. His mother died in 1906 and by the 1911 Census Percy was working as a Barman and was 'visiting' the Waterton family in 258 Elgin Avenue, Paddington, London.
He was the brother of Cllr Thomas George Hollands McCarthy, who was a local councillor in Hemel Hempstead and lived at Horton Lodge, Green End Road, Boxmoor, Herts in 1911.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war, Percy enlisted in Hampstead, Middx and joined the the East Surrey Regiment, being posted to the 8th Battalion and starting his basic training in Purfleet, near Dartford, Kent. In early 1915 the Battalion moved to Colchester and later went to Salisbury Plain.
They were sent to France on 27 July 1915, sailing from Southampton to Boulogne. Percy first saw action in the Battle of Loos and moved to Albert in spring 1916 in preparation for the Battle of the Somme.
Percy was killed in action on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when the East Surreys were ordered to capture Montaubin Ridge. Although they were one of the few battalions to reach and hold their objective, 446 officers and men were killed or wounded.
He was 25 years old and has no known grave, and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His sister Emma received the war gratuity of £8 and his pay owing was divided between his siblings, Thomas, John and Emma and sister in law Ruth.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
www.hemelheroes.com.
