Private PERCY HOUSE

Service Number 18268

Died 17/10/1916 Aged 29

2nd Bn. Hampshire Regiment

Son of Walter and Eliza Emma House, of "Egremont", 15, Newton Rd., Bitterne Park. Southampton.

2nd Bn.
Hampshire Regiment

Percy landed in Egypt 1st December 1915

History of the 2nd Battalion during WW1

The 2nd Battalion The Hampshire Regiment had only eight months in India when war broke out. On August 31st it was directed to leave Mhow at once for Bombay to take over from the Sherwood Foresters. The Battalion stayed at Colaba (where they removed ammo from a ship on fire in the dockyard) until the middle of November, when the 1/7th Hampshire relieved them. In all 21 officers, 43 sergeants, 15 drummers, and 816 rank and file boarded the Gloucester Castle on November 16th and headed for England. On December 22nd the convoy reached Plymouth, then Romsey. They joined the 29th Division and were attached to the 88th Brigade at Stafford-on-Avon and Warwick.

The 2nd Hampshire were supplied with 2 drafts of men, 181 on January 31st, and 50 on February 20th. It was at first allotted for France, but then was dispatched to Gallipoli, and embarked on March 28th. Before they left on March 12th the whole division passed in review of the King. W and X companies embarked on the H.T. Aragon, Y and Z in the Manitou, 26 officers, 993 other ranks. Calling in Malta and Alexandria, on the 2nd of April, and Lemnos. On April 24th headquarters, Y and Z companies left Lemnos in the Alaunia for Tenedos, where they transferred to the River Clyde. And headed for Gallipoli, at Cape Helles

Battles and Engagements

Below is a time line of the 29th Division through World War1

16 March 1915 : sailed from Avonmouth, landing in Egypt two weeks later

10 April 1915 : moved to Mudros

25 April 1915 : landed on Gallipoli, at Cape Helles

Battles for Krithia and the Achi Baba heights

The Division occupied positions on Cape Helles

2 January 1916 : withdrawn from Gallipoli and moved to Egypt

29 March 1916 : landed at Marseilles and proceeded to the Western Front

The Battle of Albert (first phase of the Battle of the Somme 1916)

The Battle of Le Transloy (eighth phase of the Battle of the Somme 1916) (88th Brigade)

 

Percy landed in Egypt on 1st Dec 1915, it is unclear if he ever landed in Gallipoli before the battalion he joined left Gallipoli and landed in Egypt on 2nd January 1916.

Was he in camp in Egypt waiting as a reinforcement or did he reinforce his battalion in Gallipoli?

The battalion by this time was battle hardened.

The battalion refitted in Egypt and on 29 March 1916: the battalion landed at Marseilles and proceeded to the Western Front

The first main action Percy probably saw was the The Battle of Albert (first phase of the Battle of the Somme 1916).

After the withdrawal at the end of the year from Gallipoli, 2nd Hampshires arrived in Egypt on 13 January 1916. Under 600 men had left Gallipoli, but reinforcements of over 450, including 200 from the battalion’s own convalescents, brought numbers back up to establishment.

 

The battalion sailed to France in March, where 29th Division was now allotted to Third Army. 2nd Hampshires were in Divisional Reserve until 23 April when they took over the line opposite Beaumont-Hamel. 

On 1 July the leading battalions of 88th Brigade, from the Essex and Newfoundland Regiments, were so badly mauled in the initial attack that the Divisional Commander stopped the follow-up battalions, 2nd Hampshires and 4th Worcesters, leaving the British Lines.

 

The battalion moved to the front line at Mary Redan on 3 July where they

spent the next 10 days repairing trenches and recovering arms and equipment, under persistent shell fire.

During this time 1 officer and 13 other ranks were killed, and 2 officers and 84 other ranks were wounded.

2nd  Battalion from 4 to 9 July were at position Mary Redan

 

and 10-14 July at Mailly Maillet Wood.

On 27 July the 2nd Hampshires were taken out of the line ready for a move to the north, and they arrived in the Ypres salient on 30 July. They suffered badly in a gas attack in August, but the battalion was back in the front line in September.

On the night of 8th / 9th August 1916 the Germans launched a gas attack on the 29th Division front at Potijze; there were heavy losses, especially in the 2nd Hampshires (4 officers and 125 men died out of nearly 240 casualties). You can trace the graves from Potijze back to Poperinghe and beyond. Of the 800+ gas casualties across the front, 2 out of every 5 died.

There is a good account of the gas attack on 2/Hants in the book "I Survived Didn't I?" which records the Great War Reminiscences of Private 'Ginger' Byrne.

On 8 October 88th Brigade was rushed down to the Somme to reinforce 12th

Division, who were attacking the German lines just north-east of Guedecourt and whose initial attack had been repulsed. The 88th Brigade attacked on 12 October, with the Essex and Newfoundland battalions leading.

They took their first objective, Hilt Trench, but were driven back from their second objective, Grease Trench. That evening the 2nd Hampshires relieved the Newfoundlanders in Hilt Trench, which they held for the next 3 days under heavy 9 shelling which cost the battalion 150 casualties,

On 18 October the 2nd Hampshires and 4th Worcesters attacked Grease Trench, which they took and then successfully held against heavy German opposition

Percy died on 17th October, 1916.

Ian Sythes