Percy S. Dark
Percy Stoate Dark was born 1 May 1896 in Milton Wiltshire England to Agustus Ebenezer and Mary Dark. The third oldest of 7 children, Percy was the second oldest son of the family. In 1909, the family immigrated to Lindsay ON and settled at 43 Logie Street. It appears that the family had a connection to Charles Cobb, who listed Cassie Dark, the oldest child of the Dark family, in his war will. It was also Mary Dark who received word that Charles had been killed in action in 1917 and submitted it to the Lindsay Evening Post.
On 11 November 1914, Percy enlisted in Kingston with the 21st Battalion, along with his older brother Terrence, as shown by their sequential service numbers. Their younger brother Cecil and their father Augustus also served, both enlisting with the 109th Battalion in Lindsay. Cecil was listed as a bugler, and Augustus as the Bandmaster. Terrence would be wounded and sent to England and then Canada to recover, serving at HQ in Kingston before being sent to Siberia in 1918.
The 21st Battalion war diary notes heavy activity during this period of time, with the week leading up to 12 June 1916 being very active along the 33 to 38 Trenches: “June 12th brought with it a very warm time for the Hun. His front trenches being badly smashed by our artillery and trench mortars which cooperated with it. Our machine guns also kept up a heavy fire on enemy’s parapet. The Hun replied fairly well and sent over quite a lot of H.E. which did very little damage to our line. He however got a good hit on our parapet in 37 Trench and caused considerable damage. Our casualties amounted to 14 wounded and 6 killed.”
The Lindsay Evening Post was the recipient of many letters home from Augustus, Terrence and Percy throughout their service overseas. After Percy was killed in action, his brother Terrence wrote home about the circumstances:
“No doubt by the time you get this letter you will have heard about Percy. But do not grieve – he died game and smiling. You will have read the papers and have seen where the Canadians lost a line of trenches. Well, they took it back yesterday and we are in a trench a little to the right. Percy was on the firing step with the other boys, and was pumping away at the Germans, when he was struck in the right forehead with a machine gun bullet. He was unconscious for about an hour after he was struck. Two or three minutes before he was hit he said to one of his chums, who was standing beside him, “Come on, let’s give Fritz some more.”His father, Augustus, said when interviewed by a reporter upon being notified of Percy’s death: “Abraham gave his Isaac. I am proud of my boy.”
Percy Dark is buried in Bedford House New Cemetery, Zillebeke, Belgium. He was 18 years old.
