Percy Alfred Norton

Born: 1897

Died: 22 July 1917

Rank and Regiment: Private 204024 in the Bedfordshire Regiment (formerly Private 330854 in the Cambridgeshire Regiment)

Resting Place: Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Ypres Salient II C41

Memorial: St. Peter’s, Reymerston, United Kingdom

Percy Alfred Norton was baptised in Reymerston Church on October 17th 1897. His parents were Robert and Harriet Norton. His father was a labourer at the time of his birth. He was one of 13 children, of whom 8 had survived by 1911: Robert, Herbert, Louisa, Ernest, Ethel, Edith, Albert and Reginald. By 1911 his family lived in Blackwater, Reymerston.

Percy died on 22nd July 1917 aged 19 during the battle of Passchendale on Kemmel Hill near Ypres. He first enlisted in the Cambridgeshire Regiment as a Private (330854) and then transferred to the Bedfordshire Regiment Number 204024. The war diary for that time describes how his company relieved 10th York & Lancs Regiment in the trenches on 19th July 1917. There was intermittent shelling during the day but a lot of gas and shelling at night on 21st July. During the day on the 22nd there was extensive shelling and gas and thirty men were evacuated suffering from gas. The diary records two were killed, one of these was Percy. He is buried in Messines Ridge British Cemetery in Ypres Salient II C41.

Percy’s mum Harriet was in receipt of his effects, which amounted to £3 13 shillings and 4d paid on 17th January 1918, followed by a further £3 war gratuity paid on 1st November 1919. Percy's brother Robert also served in the Great War, but safely returned.

Reymerston St. Peter, United Kingdom