Corporal Percy Fowler, 1 June 1894 – 18 August 1916

I was able to visit Bob Drummond’s uncle Percy Fowler at the Theipval Memorial, and asked Bob to write his story.

Percy Fowler was born in Guildford, Surrey on 1 June 1894, the second of four children of James Fowler and his second wife, Sarah. James also had four children with his first wife, Caroline, who had died in 1887. By 1911, James and Sarah Fowler and their four children had moved further south to the small village of Frensham.

The current president of the Frensham historical society describes the town and its countryside area as “idyllic” and it is largely unchanged from when the Fowler family lived there. Percy attended the local school and was a bell ringer in the 13th century parish church, St. Mary the Virgin.

Percy and his older brother, Fred, joined the newly formed 8th Battalion of the East Kent Regiment, headquartered in Canterbury and known as “The Buffs”, in early September 1914 and they spent the next several months in training. Unfortunately, their mother died on 3 December 1914 from heart failure – I wonder if her health was the motivation for the family’s moving from the city to the country village and clean air.

The 8th Buffs crossed the Channel on 29 August 1915 and less than a month later, were sent into action on the second day of the Battle of Loos, a catastrophic British offensive that cost the battalion approximately 80% casualties. Somehow, Percy and Fred Fowler survived.

The battalion was moved north for reconstitution and training, followed by seasoning in trench warfare in an area called “The Bluff”, south of Ypres, Belgium. From October 1915 to March 1916 in this area, approximately 100 men of the 8th Buffs were killed in the course of “the daily hate”. In April 1916, the Battalion was moved further south to the area of Ploegsteert, Belgium where they performed raids on the opposing German trenches but were also caught in a German gas attack on Wulverghem on 30 April. Apparently, Percy was wounded either during this period in Belgium or at Loos but was able to return to front line duty.

Beginning in late June 1916, the 8th Buffs were moved south toward the Somme battlefield, which they entered in early August. By that time, south of the Albert to Bapaume Road, the British had advanced about 10kms east of their 1 July start line to the road connecting the villages of Guillemont and Longueval. As with elsewhere in the Somme, progress was very slow and costly. By the time of Percy and Fred Fowlers’ arrival, the British had been trying to take Delville Wood (called “Devil’s Wood”) and Guillemont village, at the two ends of that line section, since mid-July.

The battalion was rotated in and out of the front-line trenches where on 14 August, Fred suffered gunshot wounds to his right leg and arm. The damage to his arm resulted in his discharge from the army a year later.

On 18 August, the British launched a substantial attack on the German positions along and behind the road. While the attack achieved most of its objectives, Delville Wood wasn’t completely cleared of German troops until 3 September and the village of Guillemont was finally taken on 6 September. During the 18 August attack, an artillery shell killed Percy Fowler and three other members of his battalion. One of those was Percy’s good friend, fellow postal worker and fife and drum band member, Leonard Martin. Percy’s and Leonard’s battlefield graves were lost during the subsequent two years of the war, and they are memorialized on the Thiepval Memorial in France, on the Frensham War Memorial located close to their school, inside St. Mary the Virgin church and in the Farnham postal office.

Percy’s family prepared the following obituary for him, excerpts of which appeared in Frensham and Farnham area newspapers. Those family members would have included Percy’s sister and my Grandmother, Dorothy, his youngest brother, Sidney, who was conscripted into the army and was injured a short distance east of Vimy Ridge in June 1918, and his father, James:

“News has just reached Frensham of the death of Corpl. Fowler, who was killed in action on the 18th. Deceased was the son of Mr. J. Fowler, the caretaker of the Frensham Institute. Before the war he was one of the local postmen and was held in high esteem by all who knew him, being also a member of the drum and fife band. Deceased joined up on September 8th, 1914, with three other local lads in the 8th Buffs, and played a leading part in forming a band in his battalion. He was well-known by sportsmen as a footballer and cricketter in Frensham also a member of the Farnham Post Office team, which were so near winning the cup a few seasons ago. The news reached his home in a letter to his father from R.Q.M.S. Price, also from Frensham of the 8th Buffs. Only a few days ago Mr. Fowler heard that Pte. F. Fowler of the same regiment, and elder brother to Percy, had been wounded and that Percy had been to see him and told his father not to worry. Corpl. P. Fowler had been wounded once before and was home a few months ago. In the course of his letter R.Q.M.S. Price says “With great sadness I write telling you the news of your son Percy’s death, which took place during the great advance, in the evening of the 18th of August. I, who knew him so well in the village before we enlisted, that evening nearly two years ago, when we walked together to the recruiting office, and during his time in the regiment, feel so proud to say that those qualities which made him so popular in dear old Frensham, he carried with him through his soldiering life. So popular with his comrades, his geniality and his every readiness to join in all their sports, makes him such a loss, as is evidenced strongly in the remark made by his C.S. Major this morning “I have lost my good Cpl Fowler.” I thought that meant so much. I am afraid with the news of Fred also being wounded; you will find this a great blow. Can I help you by saying his death was instantaneous, by shell fire, a shell exploding close by and killing him and three comrades and that they received a burial as fitting as the circumstances allow."