Name
Percy Morgan
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/11/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
12273
King's Royal Rifle Corps
11th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL
Panel 9.
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Harpenden Town Memorial, Hinxworth Village Memorial
Pre War
Percy was born in 1890 in Hinxworth to Jacob Kidman Morgan, gardener and coachman, and Evelyn Elisabeth (nee Stanton). His father worked for the Lydekkers at Harpenden Lodge. The family lived at the High Street, Hinxworth. On the 1911 Percy was employed as a farm labourer and was living with his grandmother at Bury End Hinxworth. Percy’s Family later lived at the Lodge, Harpenden and Ivy Cottage, Cowper Road, Harpenden.
Wartime Service
Percy enlisted at Winchester on 26 Jan 1915 in King’s Royal Rifle Corps as Rifleman 12773 and was posted to 6th (Reserve) battalion at Sheerness for training on 21 Feb 1915. On 13 May 1915 he gained the unpaid rank of Lance Corporal which became paid on 26 July. However on 4 Nov he reverted to Rifleman due to indiscipline. He embarked for France on 31 Dec 1915 landing in France the next day 1 Jan 1916 joining the 2nd Battalion on the Somme. Percy was wounded with Gunshot Wounds to Right Eye and Shoulder on 23 Jul 1916 and was evacuated to UK on 26 Jul 1916 for treatment at Highfield Hospital, Knotty Ash, Liverpool. Percy was discharged from hospital and following convalescence and leave report to KRRC Depot on 9 Nov 1916 before returning to France joining 11(Service) Battalion. Percy was made Lance Corporal again on 28 Nov 1917. He was reported Missing presumed Killed in Action on 30 Nov 1917, during the German counterattack following the earlier successes of the British in the Battle of Cambrai. His remains were not recovered and he is remembered on the Cambrai memorial.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £16 10s and arrears of £5 8s 10d was paid to his father.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Adrian Dunne, Mary Skinner, Harpenden & District Local History
Society (www.harpenden-history.org.uk)
