Name
Percival Lionel Andrews
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/11/1918
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
S4/218460
Army Service Corps
Attached G.H.Q.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GAZA WAR CEMETERY
XIX. G. 12
Israel and Palestine (including Gaza)
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, Congregational Church Memorial, Bushey, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath, Watford Grammar School Memorial, Watford, Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance
Pre War
Percival Lionel Andrews was the son of William George and Louisa Letitia (nee HUSSEY) Andrews of ‘Highlands’, Merry Hill Road, Bushey, an established Bushey family. His father was a process mounter for a photography engraver.
His parents married 27 August 1891 at St Peter’s, Bushey. William died 10 November 1922 at the Middlesex Hospital aged 55; Louisa died 10 November 1949 in Bushey aged 81.
Percival was born 8 July 1892 in Bushey, and baptised 14 August 1892 at St Peter’s, Bushey. He attended Watford Grammar School from September 1905 to July 1909. He married 26 February 1916 at St Mary the Virgin, Great Ouseburn, Yorks, and resided in Southfields.
On the 1901 Census, aged 8 he lived in Bushey, with his parents and one sibling. On the 1911 Census, an engineer’s clerk aged 18, he still lived in Bushey, with his parents and one sibling.
After leaving school, Percival became an engineer’s clerk. He was resident at Southfields, Surrey and was married to Annie (nee GOUGH) Andrews from Bushey.
Wartime Service
He enlisted 10 December 1915 in Watford: an engineer’s clerk aged 23, married, 5’6½” tall, C of E, of Bushey, Herts; next-of-kin his wife of Southfields, London SW.He embarked from Southampton 18 June 1917, travelled overland via Havre and Marsailles, and disembarked from Kinfauns Castle Alexandria 6 July 1917.
He was appointed Acting Lance-Corporal 1 January 1918, in the Army Service Corps, attached to GHQ. He was entitled to the Victory and British war medals, and died of dysentery at the 4th Stationary Hospital, Alexandria.
He died in Egypt on 9 November 1918, two days before the Armistice.
He is commemorated at the Gaza War Cemetery, on the Bushey Memorial, at the Congregational Church and at St Peter’s Bushey Heath.
Additional Information
The published Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance entry reads:
“ANDREWS, PERCIVAL LIONEL. School period: September, 1905, to July, 1909. Lance-Corporal, A.S.C. Died on active service at Gaza, Palestine, of dysentery, 9th November, 1918."
He has an entry in the National Probate Calendar. His pension record shows this was due to malaria contracted whist on active service and his wife Annie (born 07/06/1892) of 21, Smeaton Road, Southfields, received a grant of £5 paid on 03/01/1919 and a pension of 13/9 per week from 19/05/19.
There is a Death announcement for Percival in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 23 November 1918. Information provided with the kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH online via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
