Lance Serjeant 15573 Thomas Percival Davies

Thomas Percival Davies was born in Bolton on 10th February 1895, (based on his birthday Remembrance), the eldest son of Charles Frederick Davies and his wife Edith Emily (née Orrell).  His father was born in Liverpool, and his mother in Bolton.  When they married in 1894, his mother had a daughter Florence (Florrie or Flossie), born in Bolton in about 1892.  After Thomas’ birth the family moved from Bolton to Liverpool, where Charles Francis was born in 1896.  Two other children died young. 

 

In 1901 the family is living at 108 Copperas Hill, Liverpool.  His father is the public house manager.  Thomas, listed as Percy, is 6, and Charles, listed as Frank, is 4.  Half sister Florence, 9, is living with her widowed grandmother Mary E. Orrell and aunt Alice in Bolton.

 

1911 finds the family still living at 108 Copperas Hill, Liverpool.  His father, 37, is a hotel manager, his mother is 39, “Tomas Percy”, 16, and Charles, 14, are college students (attending Liverpool Collegiate School).  Flossie, 19, has no occupation.

 

Thomas enlisted in Liverpool on 31st August 1914, as Private 15573, joining the 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, giving his age as 19 years and 200 days, and his occupation as architect’s clerk. He is described as being 5’9” tall, weighing 140 lbs, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes, and brown hair.  He gives his religion as 

C. of E., and as next of kin his father Charles, at 108 Copperas Hill.

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain.  

 

Thomas shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 7th November 1915.

 

His service record shows qualification: Machine Gunner.  Thomas was wounded in action three times, at the Somme in 1916 (Transloy Ridges), at Passchendaele in 1917, and during the German Spring Offensive in 1918.

 

08/7/1916 to No.196 Field Ambulance, I.C.T. (trench foot), right heel

15/7/1916 rejoined unit

31/8/1916 granted Good Conduct Badge for two years’ service

 

11/10/1916 wounded in action, shell wound knee and right thigh

30/10/1916 rejoined unit

23/11/1916 on leave to U.K.

02/12/1916 returned from leave

 

18/01/1917 appointed unpaid L/Cpl

15/4/1917 appointed paid acting Cpl

18/5/1917 promoted paid Cpl/Lance Sgt

 

31/7/1917 wounded in action, shell wound head, (or GSW forehead)

01/8/1917 to No.11 General Hospital

28/8/1917 rejoined ex I.B.D. Etaples

10/9/1917 sick, gastritis, 

(?) to 3rd Australian Hospital, Abbeville

25/1/1918 rejoined unit in the field

30/1/1918 - 13/2/1918 (illegible, leave to U.K.?)

 

23/3/1918 wounded in action, gunshot wound left arm

24/3/1918 to 2nd Canadian General Hospital, Le Tréport

15/5/1918? rejoined unit from G Depot

 ?/5/1918 to U.S. Army 

 

The 17th Bn is sent to Meneslies on 16/5/1918 to train the 1/137th U.S. Infantry Regiment and on 30/6/1918 returns to England in preparation for operations in Russia later that year.  Thomas remains in France and on 23/7/1918 is posted to the 9th Bn K.O.Y.L.I., part of the 66th Division. His medal roll shows K.L.R. attached 9th Bn K.O.Y.L.I.

 

Thomas was killed in action on 09th September 1918  He was buried close to where he fell, and, after the war when graves were concentrated from the Cambrai battlefields, his body was exhumed and reinterred in Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery, where he now rests.

 

Gouzeaucourt village was captured by the 8th Division on the night of 12-13 April 1917. It was lost on 30 November 1917 in the German counterattack at the end of the Battle of Cambrai, and recaptured the same day by the 1st Irish Guards. It was lost again on 22 March 1918, attacked by the 38th (Welsh) Division on the following 18 September, and finally retaken by the 21st Division on 8 October. The cemetery was begun in November 1917, taken over by the Germans in 1918, and used again by Commonwealth forces in September and October 1918, but the original burials (now in Plot III) are only 55 in number. It was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brough in from other cemeteries and from the battlefield of Cambrai. The cemetery now contains 1,295 burials and commmemorations of the First World War. 381 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 34 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Another special memorial records the name of a soldier buried in Gouzeaucourt Communal Cemetery in May 1917 whose grave was destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

 

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 24th September 1918: 

 

His death was also reported in the Birkenhead News on 28th September 1918:

 

He earned his three medals. His mother Edith received Thomas’ Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £22-19-1d (this is an odd amount, as the War Gratuity was earned in 10 shilling increments).  No pension card has been found.

 

 

When his father’s health declined in January 1918 he transferred the hotel license to his wife Edith.  His father died in April 1918.

In 1919 when his mother provided information on Thomas’ living relatives, she was living at the hotel with his brother Charles. His mother relinquished the license of the hotel in 1920.

 

In 1939 his mother Edith, 68, is living with married son Charles and his family at 19 St. Stephen’s Road, Birkenhead. Charles is 43, a managing director, scrap iron dealers. She appears to have died in 1950, aged 79.

 

Thomas Percy is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 6 as Lance Corporal

Liverpool Collegiate School 

We currently have no further information on Thomas Percival Davies, if you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.