Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, South Africa.
• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

22 April - 25 May 1915. On the 22nd April 1915 the Germans used poison gas at Ypres. This was the first 'official' use of gas and took the Allies by surprise. After initial success capitalising on the confusion and horror of this weapon, a heroic stand, initially by the Canadians and then supported by British and Indian Battalions, held the German advance. However it became clear that the Germans had achieved a tactical advantage and eventually the British were forced to retire to more a more defendable perimeter closer to Ypres. These positions were on the last ridges before Ypres and their loss would have resulted in the loss of the town and possibly open the Channel coast to German occupation with disastrous consequences for the re-supply of the BEF.

Detail :

Percy George Lancaster was already serving in the British Army in August 1914 and had previously seen service overseas as part of the South African War. After Britain’s declaration of war, he decided to continue his service in the Army and he received orders to report to the Western Front in 1914. During the First World War, Percy served as a Sergeant with the Buffs (East Kent) Regiment and saw action in France and Flanders. In 1915, he was serving in Western Belgium during the Second Battle of Ypres when he was killed in action on May 3rd 1915.

"On 1st May, 1915, 2nd East Kent (Buffs) 85th Brigade, 28th Division were in the line at Verlorenhoek when a fresh draft of men from England arrived to make up the battalion numbers after the losses of April. There was no time to allot them to Companies and instead they were put en bloc into a new support trench in front of a wood where a new line had been consolidated. The next day this new draft came under extraordinarily heavy gunfire and then on 3rd May there was a full blown German attack which was directed mainly on 85 Brigade, 28th Division and 11 Brigade, 4th Division near Berlin Wood below Gravenstaffel ridge. Starting at dawn the artillery bombardment grew and grew until it sounded like machine gun fire. It was a critical situation. Parapets were blown in and there were many, many casualties. There were no communication trenches so individual platoons and sections were isolated. In the afternoon the enemy rushed and took a trench, D5, where there was little or no resistance left. It had been occupied by 80 men of C Company all of whom were reported missing, either killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Many of the new draft were killed before anyone had had the chance to find out who they were. The German attacks continued and there were a number of heroic rear guard actions as the survivors fell back to the support line where at dusk things quietened down but the lack of British artillery support had made it a very unequal contest."

He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.

Masonic :

Joined Eastern Gate Lodge from United Service Lodge No. 1341 on the 16th February 1911. Sergeant, in 1909 at the time of his initiation.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley