Percy Arden Rogers, born on 26th March 1888, was admitted to King Edward’s School in January 1901. He lived with his parents, Frances and Arthur, a brickyard and colliery manager, and six siblings at 59, Beaufort Road, Edgbaston.
Percy was in the Modern School, which offered a curriculum that emphasised scientific rather than classical subjects. Though he was relatively weak at science and German, he was near the top of his class in French and general work. He was a capable sportsman, competing in the School cross country race (7 ½ miles from Marston Green to Castle Bromwich and back), in July 1903, and placing fourth just ahead of his brother. In the same year, Percy played for the 2nd XV and was recorded in the Chronicle as “showing good promise for the future”.
In 1914 Percy enlisted as a Private soldier with Botha’s South African Defence Force, which had been raised to guard South West Africa (now Namibia). The July 1915 conquest of German Southwest Africa was a marked triumph for the British campaign in Africa. He transferred to the South African Machine Gun Brigade and served in France. In September 1917, he was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Engineers. Percy was killed in action on 27th May 1918, aged thirty, and is buried at Noeux-les-Mines Communal Cemetery. His father, by then the Reverend Arthur Rogers, requested that Percy’s epitaph should read: “I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me shall never die”.