Name
Percy Reeve
16 April 1895
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/10/1914
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
10160
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
'A' Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LE TOURET MEMORIAL
Panel 10 and 11.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Royston Town Memorial, Ashwell Merchant Taylors School Roll of Honour (LOST)(*1), Not on the Ashwell memorials
Pre War
Percy was born in Guilden Morden, Cambridgeshire on 16 April 1895, the fourth son of James and Sarah (nee Manning) and was baptised on 1 July 1901 at Sandon, Hertfordshire. He was one of nine children, but two died in infancy. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.
On the 1901 Census the family were living in Odsey, Cambridgeshire where his father was working as a coachman (domestic), as well as his parents also recorded with Percy were his siblings Arthur (16), Albert (10), Nellie (9), Horace (7) and James (4 months). His father died in 1903 and by 1911 Percy was living with his widowed mother and six siblings at Queens Road, Royston and working as a house boy domestic.
His mother later lived at 50 Pix Road, Letchworth, Herts.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in early 1914 and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, so was already a serving soldier with the 1st Battalion at the outbreak of war. The Battalion were mobilised in early August 1914 and embarked from Belfast on S S Oronsa, arriving at Le Havre on 16 August.
They were soon in action at the Battle of Mons and the Battle of Le Cateau later in August and the First Battle of the Marne in early September, followed by the Battle of La Bassee in October.
The Battalion had occupied a line of trenches south of the Festubert - Rue Quinque road about 1 mile East of Festubert. The Germans were described in the unit war diary (23-25 October) as being “particularly active & pertinacious, constantly sapping forward & making attacks at various hours of night & day”. All of these attacks were successfully repulsed but owing to length of line held, nearly the whole Battalion had to be kept in front trenches, and constantly on the alert. The Battalion was relieved from the trenches on the evening of 26 October by 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment
Percy was killed in action on 26 October 1914 during the Battle of La Bassee and is one of 60 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment killed in action between 12 and 26 October 1914 who have no known grave and are named on the Le Touret Memorial, France.
R Sandilands of the 1st Beds wrote a letter to his mother on 27 October 1914 notifying her of his death and said that he was “Exceptionally Brave”.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £4 1s 1d. A pension card exists with his mother as dependant but no amount of pension is recorded.
Percy’s brother, Albert served with the 1st Hertfordshires, 'E' Company and was killed on the railway line at Letchworth on 9 July 1914. He was buried in Royston with full military honours.
*1 The memorial is currently ‘lost’ but as this man has a connection with the school, he is likely to be on the memorial.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, Lynette Wray, www.ashwellmuseum.org.uk
