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2202 1st/5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Percy Hume was born in Ballingdon in 1894, the eldest of seven known children of John and Alice Hume. His father was a lime burner and the family lived at 42 Ballingdon Street. At the age of 16 Percy was employed at a local matting factory.
He enlisted in Colchester, Essex and first served in ‘a theatre of war’ in the Balkans in August 1915. The 5th Battalion embarked on the ‘Aquitania’ in Liverpool in July 1915, heading for Gallipoli in the eastern Mediterranean. The battalion landed at Suvla Bay in early August and saw action against the Turks. The battalion suffered 186 killed or wounded and a further 160 sick, the majority suffering with dysentery. The battalion was garrisoned at Hill 60 and had to endure disease, swarms of flies, heat and water shortage.
Percy served alongside other Sudbury men including his Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel William Morris Armes, CSM Wilfred Hunt, Albert Byham, Harry Farrant, Bertie Martin and David Pettit, who all lost their lives in the Gallipoli Campaign.
Percy died of wounds received at Gallipoli aged 21 on 14 September 1915 and lies buried in Pieta Military Cemetery, Malta. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid by his grave in January 2007 and November 2015. He is also remembered on Baptist Church Memorial in Church Street.
Several years ago someone was diving around Ballingdon Bridge when they found the plaque (known as the Dead Man’s Penny and issued to the next of kin) and a medal. Percy Hume’s name was on that plaque. The story goes that his brother was so upset at receiving them and still so grief stricken at the loss of his brother, that he threw them into the river. They have since been returned to a member of his family.
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