This is the story of Lieutenant Percival M Sharp who served in both World War 1 & 2.
Below is a video interview with Christopher Sharp about his Grandfather
The following is a transcript of the video:
Well my Grandfather for a while he lived in Rochester and he was in the territorial army in 1914/15 just when the War came and he went off to France and he signed up for the 10th (Service) Fusiliers they were based I think at the Tower of London. I think they were the stock broker regiment they were called.
He managed title of Tenant, he rose to Captain and then just before sometime in July 1916 he was near a place called Poitiers in France. A German shot him in the arm and his number 2, I think they call it Batman, he was shot outright and the fellow officer was killed outright yet my Grandfather survived it. His arm was in tatters and he was told by a French doctor that he had to go to France to have it amputated. But, he was then found out, another officer in the regiment said if you go back to England we can do the job easily. So he went back to England had the operation on his arm I think it was a hospital in John (Radcliffe) Hospital in Oxford where they did the job, patched his arm, he didn’t have it amputated at all, and then he went back to France for a second dose as they say.
He fought at the Somme. He was in the 37th division he went all round all various parts of France. After the War he then enlisted in the Second World War and he went off to Russia when the communists and Russian revolution was on and he managed, had a part in that and then in 1940’s the Second World War he went off to Leeds and helped a page on the Second World War. He got all his medals I think they call it Pip Squeak and Harry or something like that. After the War he made it at Coutts bank, he became a clergyman. He died in 1978 and is buried here in Rochester and I think he did his bit for King and Country and I think he just deserves a mention.
Images and film courtesy of Christopher Sharp.