Censuses
1911 Census (Boarstall, ref 001)
Name: Percy Blake
Address: Honeyburge
Building: Cottage
Age: 15
Born: 1896, Boarstall, Bucks
Status: Single
Occupation: Farm Labourer
Relationship to Head: Grandson
Other people on census:-
Grandmother (Head): Rebecca Blake (68, Widow, married for 42 years, 7 children, 4 living, 3 have died; born 1843, Oakley, Bucks)
Uncle: Albert Newell (40, Married, Waggoner on Farm, born, 1871, Arncott, Oxon)
Aunt: Marian (Ellen) Newell (35, Married for 10 years, no children; Charwoman, born 1876, Honeyburge, Bucks)
1901 Census (Boarstall, ref 019)
Name Percy Blake
Address: Honeyburge
Age: 4
Born 1897, Boarstall, Bucks
Relationship to Head Grandson
Other people on census
Grandfather (Head): John Blake (57, Married, General Agricultural Labourer, born 1844, Boarstall, Bucks)
Grandmother: Rebecca Blake (57, Married, born 1844, Oakley, Bucks)
Uncle: Eli (Elisha) Blake (24, Single, Cowman on Farm, born 1877, Boarstall, Bucks)
1891 Census (Boarstall, ref 016)
Name (Grandfather) John Blake
Address: Boarstall
Building Hamlet Cottage, Boarstall
Age: 47
Born 1844, Boarstall, Bucks
Status Married
Occupation Agriculture Labourer
Other people on census
Grandmother: Rebecca Blake (47, Boarstall, Bucks, born 1844, Oakley, Bucks)
Uncles: (Albert) Edgar Blake (19, Single, Agricultural Labourer, born 1872, Oakley, Bucks)
Eli (Elisha) Blake (15, Scholar, born 1876. Boarstall, Bucks)
Aunts: Beatris (Beatrice Sara) Blake (11, Scholar, born 1880, Boarstall, Bucks)
1881 Census (Boarstall, ref 016)
Name (Grandfather) John Blake
Address: Boarstall
Building Honeyburge, Boarstall
Age: 37
Born 1844, Boarstall, Bucks
Status Married
Occupation Agriculture Labourer
Other people on census
Grandmother: Rebecca Blake (37, Boarstall, Bucks, born 1844, Oakley, Bucks)
Uncles: (Albert) Edgar Blake (9, Single, Scholar, born 1872, Oakley, Bucks)
Eli (Elisha) Blake (4, Scholar, born 1877. Boarstall, Bucks)
Aunts: Ada (Georgina) Blake (8, Scholar, born 1873, Oakley, Bucks)
(Marian) Ellen Blake (7, Scholar, born 1874, Boarstall, Bucks)
Beatris (Beatrice Sara) Blake (1, Scholar, born 1880, Boarstall, Bucks)
Gunner Percy Blake
Personal information
Known as: Percy Blake
Born: September 1896, Bicester district
Pre-War Occupation: Milker
Rank: Gunner
Regiment: Royal Garrison Artillery, 180th Siege Battery
Service Number: 107240
Enlisted: 8th December 1915, Oxford
Enlistment approved: 24th July 1916
Next of Kin: Rebecca Blake (Mother)
Married: Unmarried
Height: 5 Feet and 9 ¼ inches
Weight: 124 Pounds ( 8 stone 12 pounds )
Chest measurement: 34 ½ Inches (Expansion 3 ½ inches)
Died: 25th April 1918
Cause of Death: Killed in Action
Age at death: 21
Buried: Tyne Cot Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Family
Father: Unknown
Mother: Rebecca Blake, name given by Percy Blake upon enlistment as Next of Kin (mother).
Grandfather: John Blake (born 27th November 1842, Boarstall, Bucks; baptised, date location; married 8th August 1868 at St James Church, Boarstall; death February 1910, age 67, Boarstall, Bucks; buried 19 February 1910)
Grandmother: Rebecca Blake nee Nappin (born 1843, Oakley, Bucks; baptised 21st May 1843, Oakley Church; married 8th August 1868 at St James Church, Boarstall; death date age location; buried 4th November 1926, Boarstall, Bucks)
Memorials/notes etc.
Boarstall War Memorial.
Memorial Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium
Reference: Panel 6 to 7 and 162.
Waddesdon Deanery Magazine
June 1918 Killed in Action
Medals
Victory Medal RGA/160/B Page 6049
British Medal RGA/160/B Page 6049
Receipt of medals acknowledged by Rebecca Blake 18th October 1921
UK Army Registry of Soldiers’ Effects (ref 703997)
Soldiers effects returned to Mrs Rebecca Blake 13th September 1918
Discs, beads, letters, photos, papers and cards, pipe, notebook,2 “Gillette” blades, crushed flowers, wallet, purse, toothbrush, tobacco pouch, billet pencil case, 3 pencils, metal chain and key attached, 2 farthings
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
First Names: Percy
Initial: P
Surname: Blake
Date of Birth: c. 1897
Birth town: Honeyburge, Buckinghamshire
Resided Town Honeyburge
Nationality: British
Date of death: 25th April 1918
Fate: Killed in Action
Rank: Gunner
Service Number: 107240
Service: British Army
Regiment: Royal Garrison Artillery, 180th Siege Battery
Duty Location: France and Flanders
Age: 21
Cemetery: Tyne Cot Memorial
Panel Reference: Panel 6 to 7 and 162
Relatives notified: Grandson of Rebecca Blake, of Honey Burge, Brill, Bucks
Military background
BRITISH ARMY
Regiment during World War 1
Royal Garrison Artillery
From Percy Blake Service records
Enlisted 8th December 1915 (aged 19 years 3 months)
Mobilised 30th July 1916
Posted 30th July 1916 B Depot
5th August 1916 10th Company
22nd August 1916 43rd Company.
26th September 1916 Bdge
8th January 1917 B.E.F.
20th January 1917 190 S
11th February 1917 Medical treatment, admitted with Scabies
18th February 1917 Back to duty
1st April 1917 Admitted sick with pain legs and body generally, temperature elevated.
9th April 1917 Invalided to England per hospital ship St Denis, diagnosed with P.U.O. (Pyrexia of Unknown Origin)
10th April 1917 2 Depot
10th April 1917 General Hospital, Nottingham Trench Fever; Pyrexia of unknown origin.
11th May 1917 Discharged (after 33 days)
15th May 1917 Convalescent Hospital, Eastbourne
12th June 1917 Discharged (after 32 days)
22nd June 1917 Rund Sql (?)
29th December 1917 3 Btg 1 A.R.B.
1st March 1918 Dover (teeth checked. Dentally fit )
1st March 1918 B.E.F.
1st March 1918 180 Sqt
Died 25th April 1918 Killed in Action
Cemetery / Memorial
Description. Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium
Country: Belgium
Locality: West-Vlaanderen
Identified Casualties: 34,949
Location Information
The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which is located 9 kilometres north east of Ieper town centre, on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the Zonnebeekseweg (N332).
Historical Information
The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war.
The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first-time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence. There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south. The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather. The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele. The German offensive of March 1918 met with some initial success, but was eventually checked and repulsed in a combined effort by the Allies in September.
The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites.
The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates those of all Commonwealth nations, except New Zealand, who died in the Salient, in the case of United Kingdom casualties before 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. The TYNE COT MEMORIAL now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927. The names of those from United Kingdom units are inscribed on panels arranged by Regiment under their respective Ranks.
The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of TYNE COT CEMETERY, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station. The original battlefield cemetery of 343 graves was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds. It is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited the cemetery in 1922, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pill-box. There are three other pill-boxes in the cemetery.
There are now 11,961 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery, 8,373 of these are unidentified. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.