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Australia

Enlisted at Millicetn, SA

Son of Alfred Addems and Ellizabeth Addems nee Taylor of Vansittart Park, Mt Gambier, SA. Brother of Harold Basil Addems who returned to Australia on 9 July 1919 having served with the 2nd Light Horse Brigade Machine Gun Squadron, William Charles Addems, Alfred Addems, Blanche Lessette Addems, Gertrude Lucy Annie Addems  and Raymond King Addems

On 30 March 1921 Percival married Lucy Jacquelin in the Parsonage South Terrace, Adelaide, SA. At the time of his death he was residing at Myrla

Commenced return to Australia on 9 December 1918 aboard HT Argyllshire disembarking on the 28 January 1919

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

Percival was the son of Alfred ADDEMS (1855 – 30.09.1927) & Elizabeth TAYLOR (1857 – 05.05.1933) and was born on the 31st of January 1893 in Mt Gambier, SA.

His parents were married on the 23rd of December 1882 in the Presbyterian Manse, Mt Gambier.

His father was the son of William ADDEMS and was born in 1855 in England.

His mother was the daughter of Cartwright TAYLOR and was born in 1857.

Percival was the 6th child born into this family of 7 children.

His father was a gardener employed by Mr S T WEBB and under the direction of Mr P KRUMMEL, he laid out the garden at Vansittart Park in Mt Gambier.

On leaving school Percival served an apprenticeship to the blacksmithing trade under Mr George E Truman in Commercial Street, Mt Gambier.

He then went to Millicent where he was employed by Mr John Illman Crisp.

On the 22nd of November 1915 his brother Harold enlisted into the 6th Light Horse Regiment, 15th Reinforcements (2249) and then on the 1st of February 1916 his other brother, William, enlisted into the 14th Battalion, 22nd Reinforcements (6702).

Harold then embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A4 Pera on the 22nd of March 1916.

At the age of 24, Percival enlisted into the AIF on the 10th of May 1916 in Millicent, SA and was allotted the service number 2333 and posted to A Company, 2nd Battalion Depot.

On the 16th of June he was transferred to the 5th Pioneer Battalion, 4th Reinforcements in Mitcham Camp.

Percival embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A55 Itria on the 14th of August 1916.

William then embarked from Sydney on board HMAT SS Port Napier on the 17th of November 1916.

On the 17th of August 1917 William died in the 4th London General Hospital, Denmark Hill.

He was undergoing an operation to release Heart Failure, caused by an unresolved inflammation of upper lobe of his right upper lung.

Percival served in France and after being gassed and poisoned by mustard he embarked for Australia on the 9th of December 1918 on board HMAT Argyllshire and after spending Christmas Day 1918 on board the ship he disembarked in Adelaide on the 28th of January 1919.

Percival was discharged, medically unfit, from the AIF on the 29th of June 1919 and awarded the British War and Victory medal.

After his discharge Percival stayed in the Soldiers Hostel, near King William Road, Adelaide.

He was not strong enough to follow up his avocation as a blacksmith, so he learnt the trade of harness making.

Percival married Lucy JACQUELIN on the 30th of March 1921 in the Parsonage in South Terrace, Adelaide.

Lucy was the daughter of Emile Francois JACQUELIN & Annie BRICE and was born on the 2nd of October 1877 in Mt Gambier, SA.

After their marriage they moved to Myrla (18 miles West of Loxton) and welcomed their only child; Yvonne Martienne, on the 22nd of October 1923.

In early September 1929 Percival became very ill with Bronchial Pneumonia and was admitted into the Loxton Hospital.

Unfortunately Percival died on the 13th of September 1929 in the Loxton Hospital and was buried the following day in the Loxton Cemetery; Row 20, Plot 272B.

After his death Lucy and Yvonne moved to Adelaide and Lucy died on the 23rd of June 1947 in a Private Hospital in Adelaide and was buried in the Centennial Park Cemetery; Catholic, Path 5, Plot 267B.

Military

At the age of 24, Percival enlisted into the AIF on the 10th of May 1916 in Millicent, SA and was allotted the service number 2333 and posted to A Company, 2nd Battalion Depot.

He listed his mother, of Vansittart Park, Mt Gambier, as his next of kin.

On the 16th of June he was transferred to the 5th Pioneer Battalion, 4th Reinforcements in Mitcham Camp.

Percival embarked from Adelaide on board HMAT A55 Itria on the 14th of August 1916, disembarking in Plymouth on the 30th of October and marched into No.3 Camp in Parkhouse.

He spent the next two months here in training and six days after Christmas Day 1916 Percival proceeded to France on board HT Princess Victoria on the 31st of December 1916 and marched into the 5th Australian Division Base Depot (ADBD) in Etaples.

On the 6th of February Percival marched out and was taken on strength with the 5th Pioneers the following day, who were located near Waterlot Farm and tasked with looking after the front line communication trenches.

They then took advantage of a hard frost until the 17th of February when the ground was frozen solid for about one foot deep.

This freeze meant that they were able to get large quantities of material forward so that when the thaw happened and the trenches got slippery once again, material was available to meet the situation and work was consequently a good deal easier.

Early in March the Divisional sector was extended & the enemy trenches were captured all along one front which necessitated further extension of the communication trenches to meet them.

The enemy shelling increased in intensity at this time and consequently rendered the work more difficult besides increasing casualties. Needle dump where most of the material was stored and where the railway had terminated was a particularly nasty spot. In spite of this and the bad weather conditions, which still prevailed, excellent progress was made with both trenches and railway.

Then on the 17th of March the enemy suddenly withdrew all along the front.

This of course, for the Pioneers, meant more hard work for the strip of country about 3 miles wide, either side of the front line as it was trackless and road less and had to be traversed.

In two days a duckwalk track 1 mile long was laid across this country for infantry use and three days later the existing trench tramway was extended through to Beaulencourt; an extension of some 3 miles.

From the 24th of March they controlled a mule tramway, hauling stores and ammunition by this line by mules to Beaulencourt, with 100 tons of material being shifted daily.

The Battalion Headquarters had in the meantime moved from Waterlot Farm to near Gueudecourt, then on to Reincourt-les-Bapaume and later to Fremicourt.

As the Railway work was completed, attention was diverted to roads and among other works the Battalion filled a large mine crater in the main Cambrai Road and they made a brick and log road over the top.

On 20th of April the Divisional was relieved, including Percival and his Battalion who were sent back to repair the road through Flers over which the Divisional Transport had to pass. This was done and on the afternoon of the 21st of April they moved to the hutted camp near Bernafay Wood.

After one day here a move was made to a comfortable camp at Fricourt. Here a small amount of training was carried out but attention was chiefly devoted to sport. Football and athletics were the order of the day and a fine boxing stadium was built and a ground prepared for a Divisional Horse Show near Albert. The Battalion also constructed its own rifle range. However all these preparations were cut short by a sudden order to move to the front once again and on the 9th of May they were conveyed by Light railway to Bapaume, marching on to a camp near Vaulx.

Here they were heavily shelled with one of their tents receiving a direct hit. The Battalion casualties that day were the heaviest then recorded, 12 men being killed and 23 wounded.

The camp was immediately moved to a better position and the stay in this sector lasted a fortnight only. But during this time they constructed a trench tramway from Vaulx to beyond Noreuil besides carrying forward 8000 yards of rail for further extensions. Five deep dugouts were built near battery positions for shelter for the gun crews; 2 communication trenches running to the Hindenburgh line were also maintained and a large quantity of mining timber man handled from Noreuil to the Hindenburgh Line.

On 24th of May a move was made to the villages of Thilloy just behind Bapaume. While specialist training such as bombing, signalling and Lewis Guns was held here, the main body of the Battalion was ordered to dig defences for the villages of Baucourt & Reincourt, which they completed by the 12th of June.

The Battalion then moved five days later, partly by train and by march to "Midland Huts" Camp near Albert. Here a more complete training programme was put into practice. This was somewhat interfered with by various jobs which were ordered to be carried out, such as cleaning the bed of the River Ancre, the construction of a field firing range near Thiepval and of a large divisional sports ground near Henencourt.

The cleaning of the River Ancre was extremely popular, as the weather was hot and the work had to be carried out with, or without, bathing costumes. A large musketry and bombing programme was also carried out by all ranks in addition to regular drill.

On the 7th of July they moved to Corbie where the next six weeks was spent partly in training, but mostly in swimming. 

This village was then far removed from the scene of warfare and little did Percival think that it would, a year later, be reduced to a state of ruins.

At the end of July they entrained North with their next camp being in the neighbourhood of Blaringhem, quite close to Lynde, their first resting place in France. Here further training was carried out and they took part in various reviews before visiting Generals including one by Sir Douglas Haig. After a long spell of nearly two months in this area, sudden orders were received on the 7th of September to move by motor lorry to the Ypres district to take part in the large offensive that was in progress.

The battalion’s camp for the next two months while the Ypres offensive was in progress was at a ready made camp known as Pioneer Camp; this was situated some four miles to the west near Dickebusch. To enable the men to get to their various tasks which lay to the east of Ypres, 10 motor lorries were attached to the Battalion for general use, these carried the men as far forward as was possible to their work and reduced the marching to and from the jobs to an absolute minimum.

Here they constructed a road running from Birr Cross Roads to Zillebeke. This road was directly behind a series of battery positions and consequently was heavily shelled.

At times too the task was unapproachable and as much time was occupied in repairing the shell torn parts of the road already made as in forming the new road surface. However by the splendid cooperation of all ranks and particularly the transport section the work was completed in nine days and the road left fit for traffic throughout.

For the next few days, odd jobs were more or less the rule, such as duck walks, road work and digging trenches for pipe lines. Each of these tasks, though perhaps small in itself all presented difficulties quite as severe as the larger jobs. For instance; in one case orders were received at 4pm to make a road that night passable for artillery between two points in country that was new to everybody.

This meant immediate reconnaissance as it was impossible to rely on finding any given spot at night time without previous reconnaissance especially when guiding 150 men. At 11pm on the night of the 20th of September an urgent message was received for the whole Battalion to construct a plank road leading off the Menin Road near Hooge, the following morning, accordingly, at 3am the Battalion turned out and commenced clearing the track.

These ‘plank’ roads were constructed with 3" thick beech slabs each slab being from 10 to 12 feet long and averaging 9 inches wide. By noon sufficient planks and material to complete the whole of this road had been brought to the site and 500 yards of road laid; the work was then handed over to a relieving unit who were able to complete it the same evening and thus the guns got forward that night.

The next day a second road was started from Chateau Wood to Glencorse Wood, about a mile long which was completed in five days and was one of the main means of communication during the attack on Polygon wood.

Following the attack on Polygon Wood, Percival and his Battalion were engaged with wiring the front line, two belts of wire being constructed in four nights but not without fairly heavy casualties. For the next few days odd jobs were again the rule and they were engaged in the improvement and maintenance of the roads already made. This in itself was no light task as daily great gaps were blown in them by direct hits from the enemy’s shells.

The whole of this work lay in what was termed the "battery areas" which was a portion of the battlefield where all the guns lay situated roughly from one to three miles behind the front line. This area was perhaps the worst for heavy and continuous shelling and the weather conditions greatly added to the difficulties.

The battalion camp, too, although some 8 or 9 miles from the line was by no means free from enemy vindictiveness. All the back areas from Poperinghe forward were nightly visited by squadrons of enemy aeroplanes.

On the night of October 18th they ‘got it’, resulting in 43 casualties; 10 of which were killed outright.

Early in October the mud difficulties became most acute but the large quantities of material that had been got forward eased the situation somewhat. The battalion was at this stage ordered to direct its attention to trench tramway systems.

A line that had already been started near Westhoek was pushed on towards Zonnebeke and in four 4 days the whole of the formation (some 1½ miles) was completed. Owing to the 5th Division then coming into the line, the Battalion again came under its orders and was consequently moved from this line to the construction of a new line branching off this and leading to a point some 800 yards from the front line. This line was 2 miles long and they completed it right out in 10 days.

It was almost as equally as heavy a task to maintain this line as to build it and the number of direct hits by the enemy averaged from 10 to 12 per night. Besides this maintenance more plank roads were built and mule tracks duckwalk tracks.

The new plank road leading from the Menin road to Westhoek was duplicated and a road built from Zonnebeke.

The Battalion camp was again bombed on the 21st of October causing casualties among the animals but no men. It was with considerable relief that orders were received on the 15th of November to hand over all forward work. Percival and his Battalion had been working for 2 months continuously on the forward lines of communication during one of the periods of heaviest fighting experienced throughout the war and the continuous strain was having its effect all round.

They then moved to a new sector and took up their quarters at Spy Farm, near Lindenhoek.

The area was a quiet one, shelling was spasmodic and confined to more or less particular areas while enemy aircraft seldom made their unwelcome visits. Work could therefore be carried out much easier and with less strain than before. Trenches leading to the front system were first taken in hand and put in good repair, with duckwalk construction and trench tramways maintained. A saw mill plant was run where a large quantity of timber was cut for the division. The battalion too was excellently quartered and a fair amount of respite was given.

On the 15th of December they moved with the entire Division for a thorough rest to Hesdigneul, near Boulogne, on the main railway line. Here liberal leave to Boulogne was available and everyone finally led a life of comparative ease.

An excellent Christmas Day was spent and the Battalion band, which had only recently been formed, began to make its presence heard.
At the end of January they returned to their old camps in the Messines area and returned to former tasks and during this time Percival gained two weeks leave to England on the 30th of January.

By the middle of March the whole of the roads in the neighbourhood of Messines which had previously been impassable were open for traffic and were much made use of. A large number of entrenched strong posts were built and miles of barbed wire constructed.

On the 26th of March they moved to Reninghelst on the first stage of their journey to the scene of the German attack.

Two days at Reninghelst they moved southwards by train, detrained at Doullens and marched 10 miles by night to the village of Arqueves. At Arqueves they rested but were under orders to be ready to move at one hours notice, consequently no transport could be unloaded. 

This village was picqueted every night to limit the action of spies and one escaped German prisoner was thus captured. On the 5th of April they moved on very short notice by motor bus through Amiens to the village of Daours on the somme; thence by march to Blangy- Tronville where they billeted.

They lost no time in reconnoitring the Divisional area so as to be prepared for emergencies. Work was commenced by burying 2½ miles of cable in just one day and then in establishing roads across the marshes alongside the river to provide means of retreat should such action be necessary.

Their camp was shelled on the evening of April 17th and that same evening detachments on duty guarding road mines in the village of Villers-Brettoneux were gassed and poisoned with mustard and had to be replaced.

Percival was one of these casualties and admitted into the 55th Field Ambulance and then to the 41st Casualty Clearing Station at Namps and then two days later he was admitted into the 6th General Hospital in Rouen.

His conditioned had not improved after four weeks here and he was evacuated to England on the 16th of May and admitted into the Exeter War Hospital.

Percival spent more than two months here before being transferred to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford on the 16th of July and after a further five weeks he was finally discharged and posted to No.2 Command Depot in Weymouth on the 29th of August.

Percival embarked for Australia on the 9th of December 1918 on board HMAT Argyllshire and after spending Christmas Day 1918 on board the ship he disembarked in Adelaide on the 28th of January 1919.

Percival was discharged, medically unfit, from the AIF on the 29th of June 1919 and awarded the British War and Victory medal.