Percy Pountney, born on 20th May 1888, was admitted to King Edward’s School in January 1906, aged eighteen. He lived with his parents, Annie and William, a travelling merchant of leaded glass, and three of his six siblings at 21, Ivor Road, Sparkhill.
As Percy only attended KES for a year, he does not appear in the School magazines, but the School Lists record that he was academically solid, studying in the Modern School, which offered a curriculum that emphasised scientific rather than classical subjects. After School, Percy worked as a schoolmaster at a private school in Birmingham, the name of which the 1911 Census does not record.
In October 1915, Percy gained a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the 11th Gordon Highlanders, attached to the Second Machine Gun Corps. He served in France for a few months before sustaining a serious wound on 7th June 1916. After recuperating, he was promoted to full Lieutenant, and was sent to the Ypres Salient (salient being a military term for a bulge in the line). On 7th June 1917, a year to the day since he had received his first grievous wound, Percy took part in the successful British attack on Messines Ridge, but was killed in the action. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Flanders, and he left his estate of £144 to his father.