Name
John William Percy Conder
1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
266969
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
John William Percy Conder (known as Percy) was born in 1896 in Baldock, Herts, the son of Edward and Sarah Conder and one of four children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living in Orchard Road, Baldock, where his father was working as a grocer's assistant. By 1911 they had moved to Football Close (The Close), Baldock and Percy was working as an apprentice to a book binder.
His parents later lived at 7 Jackson Street, Baldock, Herts.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment on 17 November 1915, initially being given the regimental number of 5896, later changed to 266969 during the re-numbering of 1917..
Percy had been fighting with the Lewis Gun Section during the attack on St Julien (the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres) on 31 July 1917. His anxious parents put an article in the Hertfordshire Express in October, wanting information about their son as they had not heard from him since he went into action with the Hertfordshire Regiment. The same newspaper later reported, in June 1918, that his parents had received notification stating he was regarded as officially having died on or since 31 July 1917 and, therefore, it must be concluded their son was killed at St Julien.
Percy has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £7 10s and pay owing of £1 12s 9d, He also received a pension of 3s 6d a week.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, Jonty Wild
