Name
Percy Revels
18 November 1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/10/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
26994
East Surrey Regiment
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HARLEBEKE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY
V. C. 14.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Ashwell Village Memorial, St Mary’s Church Roll of Honour, Ashwell
Pre War
Percy Revels was born in Ashwell, Herts on 18 November 1889, the son of William and Emma Revels (nee Waldock), and was baptised on 5 July 1896 in Ashwell at the age of six. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Spring Cottages, Ashwell, where his father was working as a coachman. They had moved to Station Road, Ashwell by 1901 at which time 13 year old Percy, his father and older brothers William, Arthur and George were all working as agricultural labourers. His father died in 1905 and on the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed mother, brothers William, Thomas and James and sister Annie at Pickings Lane, Ashwell and was working as a farm labourer.
Prior to enlistment he was employed by Sir George Fordham as a farm labourer.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Bedford and initially joined the Bedfordshire Regiment under reg. no. 6371, later transferring to 12th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment as part of 122nd Brigade. 41 Division.
In February 1918 Percy had been wounded in the leg and neck and had not long returned to his unit when he was killed in action on 22 October 1918. He was initially buried near where he died, but at the end of the war his body was one of six soldiers from the East Surrey Regiment found together, exhumed and reinterred in Harlebeke New British Cemetery, Belgium.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £12 and pay owing of £7 19s 2d. A pension card exists with his mother as dependant but the amount of pension is not clear.
His brother James Revels served with 16th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers and was killed in action on 4 August 1917. He is also named on the Ashwell Memorial. Another brother Tom served with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in Egypt and was wounded but survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, www.ashwellmuseum.org.uk
