17755 Cpl John Derry Perks, 10th Bn, KOYLI

17755 Corporal John Perks of the 10th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, was killed in action on the 29th December 1915. He was just eighteen years old.

John Perks was born in Hednesford, Staffordshire, but enlisted at Doncaster. He appears on the 1901 census as the three-year-old son of Thomas Perks (a 37-year-old coal miner) and Ellen Perks (aged 35) living at 5 Rawnsley Road, Cannock in Staffordshire. Five siblings are also recorded on the 1901 census - all brothers - ranging in age from 12 years to nine months. John Perks was the second youngest of the six brothers.

The 1901 census records John as John D Perks, and the birth of John Derry Perks was registered at Cannock in the December quarter of 1897. Both Soldiers Died in The Great War and The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), however, omit his middle name.

John's army number dates to September 1914 which means that he was probably approaching his 17th birthday when he joined the 10th KOYLI, and probably didn't need to do too much to persuade the recruiting sergeant that he was nineteen years old. He arrived in France on 11th September 1915 (still only seventeen years old) and was killed just over three and a half months later. CWGC notes that he was the son of Thomas and Ellen Jane Perks, of 3 Kenyon Street, South Elmsall, Pontefract in Yorkshire. He is buried in Houplines Communal Cemetery Extension in France.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, 1901 Census, BMD index)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War