PERCY FREDERICK BISHOP was serving as a Private with the 5th (Service) Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry when he was killed in action on 23rd March 1918 during the Battle of St Quentin. He was aged 21 and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial having no known grave.

He was the son of Henry and Mary Bishop having been born in Little Tew and worked as a farm labourer. He had joined the 4th Reserve Battalion of the Oxford and Bucks in 1915, being posted to the 6th and then the 5th Battalions. The expected German Offensive began with an intensive artillery barrage on positions west of St Quentin on 21st March 1918. The Germans attacked with numbers, boosted by troops released from the Eastern Front, in an attempt to win the war before the Americans arrived in numbers. Allied defenses were overwhelmed and Private Bishop was reported missing in action and presumed dead.

Steve Kingsford