COLE, Percy

Percy Cole was a long-serving regular soldier in the Worcesters who volunteered to serve in his old regiment. He joined the 1st Battalion in August 1916 and served during the Somme battles. In the follow up of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line in the Spring of 1917 he was injured in the fighting at Bouchavesnes on the 4th March. He was sent to a hospital in Newcastle with wounds to his back and legs. He recovered enough to serve in the 5th (Home) Battalion but died at home from acute pneumonia on the 12th April 1919. Sergeant Percy Cole is buried at St. Luke's, Cradley Heath, and commemorated on the Cradley and Halesowen Memorials.