Name
Percy William Mardell
1882
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/03/1917
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
60901
Royal Fusiliers *1
22nd (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN
O.VII.B.1
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Welwyn Village Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Roll of Honour, Welwyn
Pre War
Percy William Mardell was born in Hornsey in 1882 to William and Hannah Mardell and baptised in Merstham, Surrey on 13 May 1883. He was one of six children, but two had died by 1911.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Welwyn and his father was working as a Gardener Domestic. His father was a local man from Codicote and was a gardener who may have moved around for work as his children were born in various locations.
On the 1901 Census Percy, then 18, had moved out of the family home and was working as a servant in Southwark in the household of Albert Waddington but his family were back in Welwyn, living at 39 Mill Lane.
Percy married Grace Emma Catlin at Salem Baptist Chapel, Tilehouse Street, Hitchin on 22 July 1908. Grace was born in Surrey but had been living in Welwyn for some time. (Her parents, George Catlin and Theresa Bullard, were both from Welwyn, hence Percy had married a cousin of Henry Quinton Bullard who had been killed in action in 1916 and is named in the Welwyn Memorial.)
On the 1911 Census, Percy and Grace were living in Holland Park Avenue, London, where he was a Jeweller’s Shop Assistant. The couple had two children, Eric and Grace. He was living in Peckham on enlistment.
(His widow's address on pension records was given as 67 Crofton Road, Peckham, Surrey)
Wartime Service
Percy enlisted in Peckham, Surrey and initially served with the East Surrey Regiment, under reg. no. 30658, later being transferred to the 22nd Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers).
Percy died on the 13th March 1917, from wounds received in action, in one of the military hospitals situated at Rouen. He is buried in the St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France.
Additional Information
His widow Grace received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £2. She also received a pension of £1 2s 11d a week for herself and her two children. This was later increased to £1 16s 8d a week from 7 August 1918.
A joint memorial service was held for Percy Mardell, Cecil Blake, John Mayes and Harry Ward in St Mary’s Church, Welwyn on 2 May 1917. At the service the Union Flag was carried up the aisle by Corporal Henry Quinton Bullard, who just months before had lost his own son on the Somme.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London)
Bn. London Regiment (The Queens's).
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Paul Jiggens, Welwyn and District History Society - www.welwynww1.co.uk, Brenda Palmer
