Percy Preston WHITFIELD

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966

1920

WHITFIELD Francis of New-street Bentham Yorkshire died 3 April 1920 Probate Wakefield 29 April to John Whitfield yeoman and John Clapham Whitfield police inspector. Effects £1590 19s. 9d.

Western Front Association New Zealand Branch Newsletter

(Courtesy of Allan Hartley, High Bentham)

44614 Private Percy Preston Whitfield
Allan Hartley with research by Marilyn Hartley

When news gradually filtered through to the town of Bentham in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, it was a particularly sad time as the people of the town learned that on 9 October 1917, three men from the town had been lost and were not going to come home: two men to the mud and bullets of Passchendaele and one at sea.

Percy Preston Whitefield was born on 28 May 1879 at Thornton in Lonsdale, also in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and near Bentham, (1) the youngest of five sons to Francis (Frank) and Annie Whitfield. (2) The family’s farm “Bowsber” was near the village of Clapham, a short distance from Thornton in Lonsdale, where Frank was well-known in the farming community.

We are not sure of Percy’s pre-war life but it is possible that he worked with his father on the farm, until his father retired. It was possibly after Frank’s retirement that Frank and Annie moved to Bentham. It may have also been about this time that Percy decided to emigrate to New Zealand, which he did in October 1910, making his home at Glenmuick (also spelt Glen Muick), a farm near Cheviot in Canterbury, where he worked as a farm hand.

When war broke out Percy enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. There are two Attestation Forms for Percy on his service records held at Archives New Zealand. The first Attestation Form shows that he attested on 18 October 1916. The second (with “Amended Attestation” handwritten along the top), an administrative tidy-up before embarking overseas as Percy had not completed the answers to three questions on his previous Attestation Form, is dated 5 April 1917. Percy started training at Trentham Camp on 8 January 1917 and it is recorded that he was in hospital from 27 January to 31 January 1917.

After training at Trentham Camp, Percy departed from New Zealand on HMNZT No 82 ‘Pakeha’ as a member of C Company, 24th Reinforcements. The men boarded on 14 April 1917 but the sailing of the ship was delayed and the men disembarked on 17 or 18 April. Finally, on 26 April 1917 the men re-embarked and the ship sailed from Wellington. After stopping in Sydney on 2 May for a few days, the ship arrived in Devonport, England, on 28 July 1917.

Percy spent time at Sling Camp near Bulford on the Salisbury Plains in Wiltshire, and during his time in England, he managed to secure leave to see his father in August. His training at Sling Camp completed, Percy left for France on 5 September 1917. More training followed, this time at Etaples and he then joined the New Zealand Division on 15 September 1917, being posted to 12th Company, 3rd Battalion, Canterbury Infantry Regiment.

Prior to Percy’s arrival in England, the New Zealand regiments had been busy up and down the Ypres Salient in Belgium, notably at the Battle of Messines, 7 to 14 June. The New Zealanders had a major influence on the success of the battle in dislodging the Germans off the ridge as a softening up blow prior to the start of the Third Battle of Ypres, 31 July to 6 November, better known as the Battle of Passchendaele.

After 15 September, Percy is recorded as being in the field, that field being Passchendaele and it was at Passchendaele that Percy met his fate in the great sea of mud and tangled debris of war when, on 9 October 1917, he was killed in action. That was a particularly bad day when, during deteriorating conditions and strong German resistance, the attack by the II Anzacs failed at the first hurdle with heavy casualties, including Percy.

Percy’s body was not found and is one of the missing whose name is engraved on Panel 2 on the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing in the central apse of the Tyne Cot Memorial, one of 35,000 other Commonwealth soldiers whose names are engraved on the memorial.

News of Percy’s death was conveyed to his father Frank who was recorded as living at “Hazeldene” (a house possibly on Station Road), Bentham.

A memorial service took place at St Margaret’s Church, Bentham, in November 1917 with the Rev GHC Bartley officiating. Rev Bartley acknowledged Percy’s supreme sacrifice, noting that he was well respected throughout the farming community around the Bentham district.

Percy is commemorated on the memorial plaques at St Margaret’s Church and High Bentham Methodist Church. He is also commemorated on the memorial plaque, erected after the Second World War, on the wall of the Bentham Town Hall in Station Road, Bentham.

Percy was the 27th Bentham man to be killed. He was 38 years of age.

(1) In 1972, the boundaries of many counties in the United Kingdom were changed. Prior to 1972, the towns of Bentham and Thornton in Lonsdale were in the county of the West Riding of Yorkshire – they are now in North Yorkshire.
(2) We have no information of the names of the other sons, where they lived and what they did for a living although Percy is mentioned as being the youngest son, so it is unlikely that his brothers served in the war due to their age. We believe one was a policeman in Morecambe.