Percy was born in late 1891 in Bow. He was the only child of George and Alice Grottick. His father was a travelling salesman specialising in leather goods. In 1901, the family had lived in Meath Road, Ilford and so Percy attended Ilford County High School. He joined as an eleven year old on 1st July 1904. He had previously been a student at Cleveland Road School.
In 1911, the census recorded that nineteen year old Percy was still living with his parents, although by then they lived in Squirrel’s Heath, Hornchurch. Percy worked as a warehouseman for a drapery.
His army service record shows that Percy enlisted at the outset of the war, at St Paul’s Churchyard, London on 19th August 1914. He joined the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Regiment. At the time he was 22 years and 10 months old. By 29th December 1915, he had risen from Private to Sergeant and was a member of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (service number 31556).
He served in the Mesopotamia theatre of war and died near Basra (modern day Iraq) on 9th April 1916. His battalion had embarked for Mesopotamia on 12th February 1916 and joined the Tigris Corps on 27th March. After an unsuccessful attempt to relieve Kut, his battalion took part in the Battle of Sanniyat (5th-9th April 1916). Percy was amongst 543 men killed on the last day of the battle. He is commemorated upon the Basra Memorial in Iraq.
Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Note
Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.