Thomas Perkins, Walter Perkins & Thomas Albert Perkins

Army, Commemorated name/s, Loos, Registered War Grave, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme

 

Thomas Perkins
Sergeant 10451
Depot, Royal Berkshire Regiment.

 Division 49
Right side of drive

Perkins gave cem

Thomas Perkins is buried in a registered war grave.  Grave number 16079.  His wife Lucy and one son, Archibald, who gained a Military Medal and survived the war, are also buried in this grave.  The name of Thomas Perkins is commemorated on the grave kerb stones, on these are also written the names of the two other sons, Walter and Thomas Albert, who were killed in the Great War.  An account of Thomas Perkins funeral was published on 13 March 1915 in the Reading Standard. The account indicates that the family was a large one comprising seven sons and seven daughters.  Three sons are reported as serving in the Royal Veterinary Corps, one in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and one in the Naval Brigade. Both Walter and Thomas Albert served with the Royal Berkshire Regiments.

The grave is located under trees in Division 49 and for some time was lost being overgrown by ivy.  In 1988 the CWGC erected a small memorial in the War Plot which lists the names of other men buried in registered war graves but without a war pattern headstone, whose graves had been lost.

The death of Thomas Perkins was announced in the Reading Standard  6 March 1915.

Colour Sergeant Thomas Perkins – March 6th 1915, who joined Lord Kitchener’s Army for the period of the war died on Tuesday from bronchitis.  The deceased aged 62 was a native of Jersey, and was for about 30 years in the Royal Berkshire Regiment.  He was a pensioner, and offered his services at the outbreak of war, being attached to No2 Company.  Colour Sergeant Perkins has three sons in his Majesty’s forces, two of whom are at the present time at the front.  The funeral took place Friday 5th March.

Walter Perkins
Private 9039
1st  Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

WPerkins photo

He was killed in action on 17 May 1915 during the Battle of Festubert aged 30.  Walter Perkins was a regular soldier and he had served in India.   The graved details state that he was the eldest son of Thomas Perkins.  From “Soldiers Died in the Great War” we learn that his full name was Walter Charles and he was born Chatham, enlisted London lived in St. Helier’s, Channel Isles.

Walter Perkins has no known grave and is commemorated on the La Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais, Panel 30.  The memorial lists the names of over 13,000 men who fell in the area before 25 September 1915 and who have no known grave.

Thomas Alfred Perkins M.C.
Company Sergeant Major 6589
“A” Company
5th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

TPerkins photo TPerkins Headstone

Thomas Alfred Perkins M.C.,   Perkins was a regular soldier and had served in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment.  He was the second son of Thomas Perkins and was probably known as  Alfred and in some documents is referred to as Alfred Thomas.

CSM Perkins was awarded the M.C. and this was reported in the Standard 30 September  1916 “ When his company officers had been disabled he carried on with great coolness and courage during three days of intense bombardment.  He moved freely about to keep the men at work.” His battalion was involved in the Battles of Flers/Courcelette, the concluding battles of the Somme, which began on 15 September 1916 when the British used tanks for the first time.  By the 13 October the day he was killed things were a little quieter in comparison to previous action.  However, a letter from Lieut. Reginald Cobb to his parents, written the day before both men were killed instantaneously by the same shell burst, gives some idea of the conditions they were experiencing.

“You can’t imagine what it is like here.  We are right in the middle of guns which are firing all day.  There is practically a continuous stream of shells.  The whizzing through the air and the noise of the shells exploding makes a pandemonium which we get so used to that we can sleep through it, although there are miniature earthquakes most of the time.  We have been in this region about 12 days, but, on the whole, we have not had a bad time.  I am out, but as you can imagine, sitting on the steps of a trench with a continual roar all round and above you is not the ideal place for letter writing.”

Thomas Alfred Perkins is buried next to Lieutenant Cobb in Bulls Road Cemetery, Flers.   Letters were written by the C.Q.M.S and his Commanding Officer to his mother and wife Milly.  Extracts were published in the Standard 28 October 1916.

” He died without any suffering, being killed instantly by the same shell that killed Lieut. Cobb.  Both he and Lieut. Cobb were buried together and a cross marks their resting place”.

 “I beg to tender to you, on behalf of my fellow officers and my self, what poor expression I can of our sympathy for you in your sad bereavement.  It is a fearful loss to us all, so we may appreciate your loss accordingly.  Your husband was one of the best – we all thought worlds of him – not only for his bravery but for his soldierly qualities.  He was always cheerful.  No trouble was too great for him so long as his company was well looked after.  He was admired by every officer, non-commissioned officer and private soldier, so we feel his loss tremendously. As his Company Commander I knew that what ever I entrusted to him would be carried out to the letter.  I shall never be able to replace him”.

William Samuel Perrier

Army, Arras, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments

William Samuel Perrier
2nd Lieutenant
4thBattalion Royal Fusiliers

 Division 46

CIMG2206CIMG2207

 William Samuel Perrier  was the grandson of Charlotte Maskell and is commemorated on the grave of his grandmother and Horace Clarkson.   Grave number 5122.

 William Perrier was aged 25 when he was killed in action.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial Panel 6&8.  The grave memorial is particularly important because it bears William Perrier’s own words in an extract of a letter to his parents, written shortly before he went into action.  The small lead letters are slowly wearing away so the full inscription is given below.

In
Loving Memory
Of
2ND LIEUT. W. S. PERRIER
4TH BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS.
(GRANDSON OF CHARLOTTE MASKELL)
WHO FELL IN ACTION AT ST. ELOI ON 27TH MARCH 1916
AGED 25 YEARS
AND WAS INTERRED ON THE FIELD  OF BATTLE.
 ……….………….

EXTRACT OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY THE ABOVE
BEFORE GOING INTO ACTION.

 MY DEAREST MOTHER AND FATHER –
IF YOU RECEIVE THIS LETTER YOU WILL KNOW THAT YOU HAVE
MADE YOUR GREATEST SACRIFICE I.E. YOU HAVE GIVEN YOUR SON’S LIFE
TO HIS COUNTRY.  WHEN YOU LET ME JOIN THE ARMY AS AN OFFICER
YOU DID SO WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE THAT THE GREATEST SACRIFICE
YOU COULD MAKE WAS TO GIVE YOUR SON’S LIFE FOR YOUR COUNTRY.
WELL THE SACRIFICE HAS BEEN MADE.  FOR THIS LETTER WILL
ONLY BE SENT TO YOU IN THE EVENT  OF MY DEATH.
I KNOW FULL WELL THE GRIEF THESE TIDINGS WILL CAUSE YOU.
YET YOU WILL BE HAPPY BECAUSE I AM HAPPY.
I AM DOING MY DUTY, AND I KNOW AND FEEL THE SACRIFICE
HAS NOT BEEN IN VAIN AND THAT ENGLAND WILL RISE TO
GREATER THINGS THAN SHE EVER DREAMT OF

I AM EVER YOUR LOVING SON BILLY

The 27th March 1916 was the date set for the British to regain St. Eloi which had been lost the previous March prior to the Second Battle of Ypres.  After that battle the area settled in to  a constant war of harassment.  Martin Marix Evans describes the scene in his book ‘Passchendaele’.

 “Fortifications were improved though more attention was given to this by the Germans than the British.  The former…built deep underground bunkers…concrete pillboxes and redoubts to secure the line.  The British…were dedicated to the ejection of the invader….their trenches were seen as jumping off points for an advance…..The conditions endured by both sides were abominable.”  

 Five months after the Germans had taken St. Eloi the British began a massive mining operation and at 4.15 am on the 27th March 1916 a bombardment of the German front line started and six mines were blown.  Two front line companies of a German Jäger  Battalion were wiped out.  The British (9th Brigade) rushed to take the first three craters and the German third line.  It is likely that William Perrier was lost in this action.  The battle ground was confusing with old craters mistaken for new and the line split in the German counter attack.  Fighting was fierce and the line, such as it was,  was taken over by the Canadians on 6th April.  The fighting continued until the 14th  -15th April by which time the Canadians had suffered 1,373 casualties.

Wilfred Pichette

Canadian, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave

 

Wilfred Pichette
Private 648987
224th Canadian Forestry Corps.

 War Plot
Division 71 & 72

Wilfred Pichette was the son of Napoleon Pichette and Melina Matte, of 29, Demers Street, Quebec.   He was found drowned on 10th October 1916, aged 23.

The Standard and the Mercury on October 14th 1916 carried an  account:

 Record of death of Alfred Pichette  

 It seems Alfred Pichette came to Reading for a weekend visit from his station at Bagshot – Lieut. G.H. Frith, acting adjutant of corps, said he had been a labourer in Quebec and enlisted in March.  Aged about 25 years. “He was a steady man , and had only twice been absent without leave”.

 Mysterious Death 

An open verdict “found drowned”. The body was taken from the River Kennet – there were one or two mysterious points surrounding the drowning which fully justified the jury arriving at the decision they did.  It was a mystery how Pichette came to be where he was.  The Canadian Forester, was stationed at Bagshot.  The adjutant stated that he believed the deceased to be a fairly steady man, he had two marks for “absence without leave”.  He had gone away at the end of September and had not reported back.  Witnesses could not account for how the body got into the water.  Mr John Ernest Palmer, house-surgeon found no signs of external violence.  The body was in a state of decomposition; it had been in the water about a week.  Death was by drowning.  A shunter for Huntley and Palmer who gave evidence as to assisting in taking the body from the water said “The clothing of deceased was not properly adjusted”.

Wilfred Pichette is remembered in the Canadian  First World War Book of Remembrance