b. 16/01/1885 Wakefield, Yorkshire. d. 1959 Pontefract, Yorkshire.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 19/09/1915 France.
Percy was the eldest of four children of William and Elizabeth Warwick and grew up in Sandal Magna, West Yorkshire. He became an apprentice and qualified as a plumber and glazier and continued to live at home following his father’s death. He attested into the Grenadier Guards at Pontefract on 6 th September 1914 at the age of 29 years 228 days and was given the army number 18905. His description was:- height 5 feet 9 ½ inches, weight 163 lbs, chest 38 inches, complexion fresh, eyes grey and hair light brown. His religion was Church of England, and his trade a plumber.
Warwick joined the Grenadier Guards “proper” at Caterham on 13 th September 1914, after basic training he initially served with the 4 th Battalion. He embarked for France from Southampton on 1 st May 1915 and immediately transferred to the 1 st Battalion. He joined the Battalion at the front on 27 th May.The Battalion had just taken part in the first phase of The Battle of Festubert, with some success. Warwick was appointed an unpaid lance corporal on 7th September 1915. On 19th September Warwick performed the act that would earn him the Albert Medal. This is a very scarce life saving award, only being won by two Grenadiers, with only 290 bronze land awards in its 100 year history.
On 21st November 1916, he married Elizabeth Dawson at St Helens Church, Sandal Magna. By 1939, he was living and working in Castleford, and was now single. He remarried to Lilly in November 1947. He died in Pontefract in the last quarter of 1959.
AM CITATION:
On the 19th September, 1915, a class of men attached to the Grenade Company of the 3rd Guards Brigade was being instructed in throwing live bombs from a saphead into a small trench twenty-five yards away. One of the men when his turn came was nervous and, after igniting his bomb, dropped it behind him. Warwick at once, with great presence of mind, picked the bomb from between the legs of several men and threw it out of the trench. In each case explosion followed immediately the bomb had been thrown away.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
