IN MEMORY OF OUR BAXENDEN LADS

1914 - 1918

& 1939 - 1946

Wm. Turner - November 1994

Introduction
Baxenden War Memorial

CUCKNELL, Alan
GIBSON, Edward
KAVANAGH, Wilfred
TAYLOR, Ernest
WINTERBOTTOM, Richard

Links

Accrington Pals
Visit to Serre
The Somme and Vimy
First World War pages

Designed by  M i c r o L o f t

L/CPL. 15224 PERCY BURY of the 11th East Lancashire Regiment (the Accrington Pals) was killed in action on July 1st 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in France.

Percy lived at 8 Worsley Street, Accrington, and was married with one child. His child was born whilst he was abroad, and therefore he had never seen it. Before he enlisted in September 1914 he worked at Broad Oak Printworks in Accrington. (Percy's brother Albert, who lived in St. James' Street, Accrington, was killed on the same day.)

Percy's body was never found or identified, and his name (with his brother's) is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on the Somme. The Memorial is some four miles north-east of the small town of Albert. It stands on a rise overlooking the battlefields. It is in the form of a triumphant arch and is built of brick with limestone facings. (In the 1980's much of the brickwork in the archways, which are a feature of the Memorial, was replaced by special bricks made in Accrington.) On the stone panels are inscribed the names of over 73,000 men who died on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 and have no known grave. Percy's name is but one of 144 'Accrington Pals' who are so named. His brother Albert's name is next to his.