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31999 12th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Percy Partridge was born in Ballingdon around 1885. He was one of five surviving children of James and Emma Partridge. His father was employed at one time as a baker’s assistant; by 1891 he was a Ranger on the Sudbury Common Lands. At the age of 16 Percy and his two older sisters were living at 4 Ballingdon Street with their widowed father. The family later moved to 7 Cross Street. Percy was employed as a general labourer and he married Bertha Griggs in 1914; they and their children lived at 14 Curds Lane, (now Weavers Lane).
Percy enlisted in Sudbury and served with the Suffolk Regiment. The battalion formed part of 43rd Brigade,14th (Light) Division. It is not known when in 1916 Percy joined his battalion in France. In 1917 the battalion saw action during the Battle of Arras (9 April – 16 June) and the Third Battle of Ypres, more commonly known as Passchendaele (31 July – 10 November).
On 21 March 1918 the Germans launched their Spring Offensive. Operation Michael was a vast attack along the whole Somme sector front with the aim to destroy the British Army. The Germans advanced quickly and deeply with heavy losses for the Allies during March and April 1918. The Division saw action during the First Battles of the Somme 1918 at the battles of St Quentin (21 - 23 March) and the Avre (4 April). The Division suffered severe casualties during these two actions losing 6,000 men.
Percy was killed in action on 12 April 1918 aged 33 and lies buried in Suffolk Cemetery, La Rolanderie Farm, Erquinghem-Lys, Nord, France. The cemetery is very small and contains only 35 graves with access through a farmyard and across an open very muddy field. A Cross of Remembrance was laid by his grave in October 2010.
Private Percy Partridge was awarded the Military Medal. The announcement of the award appeared in the London Gazette Supplement on 13 March 1918. No citations were printed for Military Medals. Percy was also awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
On 28 October 1937 the following article appeared in the Suffolk Free Press:
‘In 1918 a German soldier found a photo in the hand of a dead British soldier, recently the German was the means of the photo being returned to England as it was published in the British Legion Journal, it was seen in Sudbury where it was realised the photo was that of a Sudbury soldier and his wife and family, Mr. and Mrs. Partridge. Mrs. Partridge still lives in Curds Land, Sudbury in the same house she and her husband occupied when he joined the 12th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment in 1916.’
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