SUTTON youth Percy Hargreaves was just 17 when the Army ordered him to join up in 1916.

He was classed as medically fit in January the following year and was called up that spring while working as an apprentice butcher for Gilbert Hargreaves in Cross Hills.

As Private Hargreaves he was transferred to the training reserve, then the West Riding Regiment, and in February 1918 he finally arrived in France.

Within four days Percy joined his unit in the field, and before summer was out, he was dead.

Percy was serving with the regiment at Henu when he and his comrades received their marching orders for Cherville and then Germaine, before finally going into action on the front lines at a place called Marfaux on July 20.

It was there that Percy received wounds from a German shell explosion and was taken to the West Riding Field Ambulance unit, behind the lines, where he died.

In peacetime Percy had been closely associated with Sutton Baptist Church and Sunday School, and a memorial service was held at the church in August 1918.

The Cross Hills platoon of the West Riding Volunteers attended the service, along with the Sutton Baptist troop of Boy Scouts. The pastor, the Rev FW Pollard, paid a glowing tribute to Percy.

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