Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Percy was born on the 22nd December 1910, in the Adelaide suburb of Welland, an area now known for its remnant Brickworks Kiln. Percy was the middle of three children, with an older brother Ernest and younger sister, Laura. During those years, many families relied on horses as their main form of transporting goods, but finding agistment sites was a challenge at times and horses were sometimes left near homes and untethered. Percy’s father, a timber merchant was fined in October 1917 for letting his horse stray along the street outside his home and faced a heavy penalty of 10/-with £1 I5/ costs.
At the time, there was a strong push for all children to regularly attend school, with the onus on parents to fulfil this obligation. ‘School Attendance Officers’ were employed and found that 13-year-old Percy being, less that the school leaving age, failed to attend. Consequently, his father was charged in the Magistrate Court and was fined £1.
Post school, Percy became a mechanic and was also part of the Citizen’s Forces. He relished his freedom but as a nineteen-year-old he also ‘pushed the boundaries’ with behaviour which saw him front the Woodville Magistrate Court with a fellow youth, both being charged with offensive behaviour at Woodville North. Each was fine £3 and Percy a further £1 10/ for having driven a motor car without a light attached – an expensive outing.
Almost six years later and with a different set of acquaintances, Percy received a further fine in the Adelaide Police Courts for ‘unnecessary noise’. , each of the five young men being fined 10/ with £1 costs. Two years later and with a totally different set of six friends Percy again parted with a fine of 10/- in the Goodwood Court for having behaved offensively at the Showgrounds
With the outbreak of WWII, 29-year-old Percy enlisted on the 3RD July 1940 being allocated the number SX8846. While training at Woodside in the Adeliade Hills he was placed in the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. Following leave, he boarded the Stratheden, which had a ‘stop-over’ in Freemantle, Western Australia. Still with that streak of high spirits, Percy decided to do some unofficial ‘sightseeing’ which proved to be expensive, attracting a fine of 10/-.
Percy arrived in the Middle East where the desert conditions, heat, flies and an unvarying diet, caused several health issues including gastroenteritis, indigestion and other infections. He was also to become one of the highly regarded Rats of Tobruk, an unofficial title initially designed to destroy morale and encourage the troops to surrender rather than live ‘like rats’ in their dusty, infested dugouts. Contrarily, the taunt had the opposite effect as the troops seized the title as a badge of honour.
Despite the privations and constant battles, Percy avoided being injured and returned home to Australia via Melbourne in February ’43. Unfortunately, his digestive issue continued to flare causing him to spent some time resting and recovering in Kapara Convalescent Home at Glenelg under the care of red Cross nurses.
Training in Queensland followed as the battalion prepared to face a very different enemy in the tropical conditions of New Guinea. Percy left Cairns for Milne Bay where he developed a high temperature (Pyrexia of Unknown Origin), preceding Dengue fever and malaria.
Soon after his return to Brisbane, Percy was absent for several hours, inevitably being fined £1 and confined to barracks for four days. He developed a chronic skin disease (Psoriasis) and a return of malaria prior to his final discharge on the 26th October ’44.
Soon after, Percy married Edie with the two having four children, Bill, Josie, Rick and Steve.
Percy lived to be 77 and died on the 11th April 1988. He was buried in the North Brighton Cemetery, Section E Row 4 East. Edie lived to be 92 and died on the 7th February 1999.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.