King Edward’s School and the Great War

Memorial Roll of Honour 1914 - 1918

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Perkins, Cecil Howard

Acting Captain ▪ 21st Trench Mortar Battery

Cecil Howard Perkins, born on 9th November 1896, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1911, having previously attended The Priory in Malvern. He lived with his parents, Mabel and Charles, the organist for the Town Hall and the university, as well as his brother and his sister at 30, Mayfield Road, Moseley (and later at 25, Edgbaston House, Broad Street).

At School, Cecil performed well academically, winning the Class Prize for French in 1913 and placing near the top of his class in all other subjects. He does not appear in any of the School magazines.

Cecil enlisted in the 3rd Birmingham Pals Battalion (16th Royal Warwickshire Regiment), in 1914. He reached the rank of Corporal in November before gaining a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Yorkshire Regiment, 13th Battalion, in September 1915. He went to France in May 1916, attached to the 15th Battalion as a Bombing Officer, and was then promoted to Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion in the wake of the Battle of the Somme, where Cecil had seen fierce action throughout the capture of Mametz Wood. Thereafter he was attached to the 62nd Infantry Brigade Headquarters, and the 62nd Trench Mortar Battery. From March to May 1918 Cecil served as an Acting Captain commanding the 21st Trench Mortar Battery, and soon afterwards was seriously wounded by an aerial bomb, dying of his wounds on 23rd July at Calais, aged twenty-one. He is buried in Les Baraques Military Cemetery, Sangatte, France, where the inscription on his headstone reads: “Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori”. He left his estate of £260 to his father.