Percival Edward Tarver

Name

Percival Edward Tarver

Conflict

First World War

Date of Death / Age

12/03/1915
42

Rank, Service Number & Service Details

Private
1699
London Regiment *1
13th (County of London) Bn
'G' Coy,

Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards

1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals

Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country

NEUVE-CHAPELLE FARM CEMETERY
E. 3.
France

Headstone Inscription

Not Researched

UK & Other Memorials

Bushey Town Memorial, St James’ Church Memorial, Bushey

Pre War

Born in 1872 at Eton College in Buckinghamshire, where his father taught French, and baptised in the Eton registration district on 14 December 1872, Percival Edward Tarver was the second son of William H and Henrietta Sarah (nee Miller) Tarver. His parents were married on the 31 March 1860 in the registration district of Eton.

At the 1881 census, Percival was eight years old and living with his parents and five siblings in Windsor Road, Upton-cum-Chalvey, Buckinghamshire. William and Henrietta (Snr.) were 59 and 41 years old respectively and William was working as a French master at Eton college. Percival’s siblings were Rosetta Mary, Henrietta (Jnr.), Francis, Violet, Josephine and Alexander, and they were 20, 18, 16, 13, 11 and 5 years old respectively. Henrietta (Snr.), Rosetta and Henrietta (Jnr.) were also working as French teachers, whilst all the other children were at school. Birthplaces for the family were given as Frogmore in Berkshire for William, Woolwich in Kent for Henrietta and Eton College for all the children. Also present was William’s 86-year-old mother-in-law, Henrietta Miller, who was working as an accountant.

By the time of the 1891 census, Percival’s parents and three of his siblings, Henrietta (Jnr.), Violet and Josephine, had moved to 6 Shalmar Terrace in Horn Lane, Acton, Middlesex. Percival was not present and was recorded in the outgoing passenger list on the SS Highland Enterprise, which left Liverpool on 14 August 1909 bound for Buenos Aires in Argentina. Percival worked there for Argentinian railways but later returned to England on the SS Remuera which arrived in London on 17 June 1914.

At the 1901 Census, Percival’s parents and two of their daughters, Henrietta (Jnr.) and Josephine, had moved again to The Bungalow, 23 Bournehall Road in Bushey. Henrietta (Snr.) is now using her middle name of Sarah rather than Henrietta. Also present is a general domestic servant, called Lucy Williams.

Three of Percival’s sisters were artists who attended the Herkomer Art School in Bushey and their art studio is still at the bungalow in Bournehall Road.

Wartime Service

Percival enlisted in Kensington as Private 1699 with the London Regiment and served on the Western front with the 13th (County of London) Battalion (Princess Louise’s Kensington Battalion), where his duties as a signaller included carrying messages on foot and by bicycle or by leaving the road and crawling along trenches in deep mud.


In January 1915, he wrote to The Watford Observer describing his experiences and the Christmas Truce of 1914. He was killed in action on 12 March 1915, aged 42. He was buried at Neuve-Chapelle Farm Cemetery in France and is commemorated in Bushey on the Clay Hill Memorial and at St James’ Parish Church. He was entitled to the British, Victory and 14/15 Star medals, his qualifying date being 3 November 1914.

Additional Information

*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London) Bn. London Regiment (Kensington).

Acknowledgments

Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild