ENSTONE Percy

Appears in the Worcester/Worcestershire Roll of Honour Book for army casualties located in Worcester Cathedral under Hampton casualties, 18587 Percy Eastone The Hussars.

Evesham Journal and Four Shires Advertiser, 5th June 1915:
HAMPTON MAN KILLED
We regret to record the death of Trooper Percy Enstone, son of Frank Enstone, parish clerk of Hampton, who has been killed in action. The news of his death was conveyed to Trooper Enstone’s fiancee, Miss Ewins, of Briar-close, Evesham, by Sergt. King of his troop who found Miss Ewins’s address among his dead companion’s belongings. Trooper Enstone who was a very finely built man, stood six feet one inch in height and was well made in proportion. While living in Hampton, he was a member of the church choir and also a bell-ringer. He was a keen football player and for a time was captain of Evesham Wanderers’ club. He served for sixteen months in the Birmingham police force, of which his brother Frank is still a member. In September last Trooper Enstone enlisted in the 11th Hussars and left for France in October. He was wounded on November 16 in the eye and was an inmate of a Paris Hospital for five weeks, returning to duty about Christmas. He was shot and killed by a German sniper on White Monday (May 24) and was buried with all reverence in a small wood near the firing line. Sergt. King, in communicating the sad news to Miss Ewins, speaks in the highest terms of the way Trooper Enstone carried out his duties and states that he was in every way the true type of a British soldier. His death has caused much grief to his comrades with whom he was very popular. A muffled peal was rung on the church bells at Hampton on Sunday evening and feeling reference was made to Trooper Enstone’s death by the Rev. C.F. Thomas, who is acting as locum tenens for the new Vicar.

(Percy was the son of Frank and Mary Jane Enstone (nee Preston) who were married in 1889).

The clock on Hampton St Andrew’s Church is a war memorial to WW1 and is inscribed with the words: War Memorial 1914-18.

The tenor bell is inscribed “also in memory of the sons of Hampton who died for the sacred cause of liberty and freedom”.  The name of Alfred Bowell is inscribed on one of the bells, his granddaughter is currently a bell ringer at the church.

The following information are transcripts from letters Percy sent to his brother Frank and his father, Frank Senior, and are courtesy and copyright of Kathyrn Key, Percy Enstone’s great niece:
Percy mentions the constant rain and mud and having permanent chilblains as it was impossible to keep his feet dry.

He was clearly very involved with the horses mentioning the fact that they all had to be exercised and groomed every day. On one occasion 750 horses left Aldershot for the front and the following morning 1000 horses were expected from Canada. Most of these needed training as expected to be wild. They had no saddles only blankets.

On the 8th December 1914 he writes from hospital in Paris (which was actually the Hotel Astoria). He had suffered eyesight damage and was blind in one eye. Whilst in hospital they were frequently taken out for tea and he mentions visiting Mrs Rothchilds and were often given cigarettes and sweets on their visits. Surprisingly when he was discharged from hospital despite his injury he was returned to the front via a Convalescent Camp in Rouen. He says they didn’t know what they were going to the first time but now having been there expresses his concern as to returning to what he described as “that hell hole”!

Percy died on the 24th May 1915.

Below is an exert from a letter written on the 29th June 1915 from Frank Enstone Senior to his son Frank (Percy’s brother):
“I have had a letter from the Captain of Percy’s squadron Capt. N M Stewart Richardson giving us the particulars of Percy’s death, he says he was shot in the head by a rifle bullet & killed instantaneously during a German attack on the 24th May at Zillebeke in Ypres, he says he did not suffer at all. He is buried by the side of a number of other men of the same squadron in a wood called Sanctuary Wood just behind the trench line where he was killed & the grave is marked with a cross bearing his name and number.”

The Ypres sector suffered a number of battles over the next 3 years and Percy’s grave was one most likely obliterated by heavy shelling. With no known grave, he is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres.

Percy Enstone has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial.