2nd Lieutenant Percy Douglas Stanley

Percy Douglas Stanley (known as Douglas) was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, in the March quarter of 1896, the eldest son of Percy Bleasdale Stanley and his wife Alice Mary Danvers (née Taylor).  His father was born in Liverpool and his mother in Wandsworth, London.  They married in Liverpool in 1895 and soon after their marriage moved over the water to Wallasey, where their four children were born.  Douglas had younger siblings Dorothy Patricia, born in 1898, and twins Frank Leslie and Alice Vera, born in 1904.  Douglas was baptised on 8th March 1896 in New Brighton.

 

In 1901 they are living at 16 Sandiways Road, Wallasey, with a domestic servant.  Both his parents are 26, his father employed as a pawnbroker’s assistant. Douglas is 5 and Dorothy 3.

 

The 1911 census finds them at 13 Oakland Vale, Promenade, New Brighton, in nine rooms with a domestic servant. His father, 36, is a pawnbroker, employer, his mother is also 36, Douglas is 15, Dorothy 13 , Frank and Alice, 6, all at school.

 

Douglas enlisted in the 19th (Pals) Bn, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as Private 17474. 

Formed on 07^th September 1914 the 19^th Battalion trained locally at Sefton Park and remained living at home or in rented accommodation until November 1914. They then moved to the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 19th 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. He arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.

 

The Battalion War Diary shows that 2/Lt P.D. Stanley joined the battalion on 23rd June 1917, then at Hénin (Hindenburg Line). At the end of August the battalion moved into billets at Simencourt and on 16th September entrained for the Ypres Salient, arriving at Hondeghem, then via Chippewa Camp near Reninghelst, to Railway Dugouts S.W. Of Zillebeke Lake, arriving at 6 p.m. on 30th September. 

 

1/10/1917  The battalion receives orders to move up to the southern edge of Polygon Wood, and reaches Clapham Junction at 11 p.m. without casualties.  

2/10/1917. The battalion moves up to relieve the Leicesters, the start having to be postponed for an hour due to heavy shelling; relief completed at 1:30 p.m.

3/10/1917 The battalion holds the front line under continuous heavy shelling and suffers casualties, chiefly through shell shock.

4/10/1917  The battalion forms up for the attack on the German front line, its objective being the road that runs just west of Reutel. ... Battalion attacked with ‘D’ Coy right front line, ‘C’ Coy left front line, each company being on a one platoon frontage, ‘B’ Coy in support behind ‘D’ Coy, ‘A’ Coy in reserve behind ‘C’ Coy.  From front to rear of the battalion the distance was 160 yards, instructions being issued that the whole battalion should cross as closely as possible to the barrage without leading to confusion of Coys. ... Zero was 6 a.m. and promptly at that time the whole line went forward. ... Prisoners began to come through within half an hour of zero.  An hour after zero the enemy laid down an intense barrage from the road bounding the eastern edge of Polygon Wood. ... No communication could be established with the front line until the fire slackened about 6 p.m. ... At about 9:30 p.m. the S.O.S. signal went up from the front line.  In reply to our bombardment the enemy again barraged Polygon Wood and back areas.  During the bombardment at about 10:30 p.m. an enemy shell exploded at the entrance to Battalion H.Q., mortally wounding the C.O. in the stomach and thigh, killing the signalling Cpl, and wounding the Signalling Officer and Intelligence Officer.

 

Douglas was reported Missing in action on 4th October 1917 and his death later assumed to have occurred on or since that date.  His body was never recovered from the battlefield, or was subsequently lost, and he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, Flanders.

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

 

A notice was placed in the Liverpool Daily Post on 29th October 1917:

“Second-Lieutenant P. Douglas Stanley of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, whose home is at 13, Oakland Vale, New Brighton, is officially reported as missing since October 4.  He joined the K.L.R. at the outbreak of war and was wounded on the Somme in July 1916.  On receiving his commission he returned to France about six months ago.  Lieutenant Stanley was an old Liscard high school boy, and was a member of the West Cheshire Sailing Club.”

 

His family placed an In Memoriam notice in the Liverpool Echo on the first anniversary of his death:

 “In loving memory of Douglas Stanley, Sec. Lieut., K.O.Y.L.I., of 13, Oakland Vale, New Brighton, who was killed in action in Flanders, October 4, 1917.”

 

Douglas earned his three medals, but sadly his Memorial Plaque was sold on Ebay in 2018.

Probate in the amount of £328-10-8d was granted to his father, who also received Douglas’ effects of £55-11-6d, and a War Gratuity of £15. 

 

In 1939 his parents, with brother Frank, were living at 28a Wellington Road, Wallasey.  His father was retired, Frank was a pawnbroker.  His father died in 1940, aged 65, and his mother in 1948, aged 73.