Name
Percy James Saunders
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/04/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
25480
Northamptonshire Regiment
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SENLIS COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
I. D. 21.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Much Hadham Village Memorial, St Andrew’s Church Memorial, Much Hadham, Stone Bench Plaque, Much Hadham, Congregational Church Memorial, Hadham Cross, Not on the Standon memorials
Pre War
Born in 1888 in Standon, Hertfordshire son of Augustus James and Abigail Agnes Saunders and was living in Camwell Hall, Much Hadham in 1891, 1901 and in 1911 when Percy was working as a carpenter and his father was running the farm.
He married Elsie Maud Hodge in 1913 in Bishop’s Stortford and they also lived at Camwell Hall, Much Hadham. They had two daughter born in 1914 and 1915.
Enlisted at Much Hadham.
Wartime Service
He was killed in action on the Somme. 5th Northamptonshire War Diary Notes: During April 1918, the 516 Northampton Regiment were involved in creating and repairing trenches and manning a small part of the Corps line. Although it is recorded that the regiment lost 5 men on the 6th, the division history shows that things were quiet on that date. However, at 7am on the 5th the whole line (some 4,000 yards) came under heavy shelling of all calibres and gas at the back areas, followed at 7.30am with an attack by German troops. Fighting on this day was very severe and casualties were heavy although the enemy failed to break through.
It seems likely that Percy and the other 4 men from the regiment who were reported to have died on the 6th became casualties as a result of the fighting on the 5th.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, “Lest We Forget – Much Hadham 1914-18” by Richard Maddams (Much Hadham Forge Museum), Pat Bird
