On this day in 1917, Percival ‘Percy’ Charles Worle (1888-1917) was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele.
A corporal in B Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, Percy was 29.
He emigrated to Canada in 1914 and was working as a farmer in Caron, Saskatchewan when he enlisted in the 128th Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on April 1, 1917 at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Percy sailed to England on the troopship SS Grampian in August that year.
He was in France three months later – serving as a private in the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles.
He spent two weeks in hospital after being shot in his right buttock on June 2, 1917.
He was promoted to corporal in August that year, just two months before he lost his life at Passchendaele.
Percy was buried at La Brique Military Cemetery (No 2), near Ypres in Belgium.
His grave includes the inscription: ‘In the midst of life we are in death’.
He is commemorated on Winford War Memorial in Somerset and on his parents’ grave in Winford.
Paul Roberts
NOTES
Born on August 10, 1888 in Winford, Percy was the son of Walter Henry Worle (1854-1936) and Alice Pearce (1858-1928). In 1911, aged 21, he was a colliery timberman, working underground, in Abertillery, Wales.
Percy’s brother Wilfred Harry Worle (1879-1950) married Amy Maud Roberts (1881-1935) on May 4, 1910 in Winford. Amy was the daughter of Henry Roberts (1822- 1892) and Ellen Stacey (1840-1934). Henry was the son of William Roberts (1779-1848) and Sarah Treble (1784-1861). William was the son of William Roberts (1738-), my great-great-great-great-great grandfather.
Picture below
La Brique Military Cemetery (No 2) where Percy was buried. Photograph taken on November 11, 2008 by Wernervc (CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Brique_Military_Cem._No.2.JPG
