Current Information:

Age-27

34, Kenmont Gardens, Kensal Green

On 24th December, 1917, 2/12th London of 175 Brigade, 58th Division, moved into an outpost line, in front of Poelcapelle in the Ypres salient. This was ground that had only recently been wrested from the enemy during the Battle of Passchendaele and it was a desolate terrain, full of shell craters, dead bodies and mud. Except that now a period of very cold weather had arrived and everything was frozen. This had benefits. Moving around was much quicker and easier now that the men could walk over the mud rather than plough their way through it and it was considered worth having to put up with the cold to be free of mud. But there was downside too. Shell fire, an ever present feature, was now far more dangerous. Shells bursting on a hard surface rather than in mud meant that shrapnel and shards of ice and rock flew everywhere and were much more likely to cause death and injury. This may well explain how Thomas Perry was killed on 24th December.