Date of Birth
21 May 1880
College
Borough Road College
Job(s)
Teacher at Cann Hall Lane, Wanstead Slip
WW1 rank
Lieutenant
County of London Battalion, London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles), 17th Battalion
Theatre of war
Europe
Date of death
26 September 1915
Buried/memorial
Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France (Grave/Memorial reference: Panel 130-135)
Biography
Lieutenant Wilfred Ashton Piercy came to Borough Road College from Leytonstone in 1899. He had suffered from ill health when he was younger, having had several ‘bilious’ attacks. Piercy spent two years at Borough Road College, and his third year abroad with a scholarship to L’Ecole Normale in Rouen. He graduated in 1902 with a BA from the University of London. He is listed as being destined for a boarding school in Wanstead Slip. He went on to teach French at Huntingdon Grammar School, St Jude’s Commercial School and Whitechapel Foundation School. He joined the 17th Battalion London Regiment in March 1912 and volunteered when the war broke out in 1914. He served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from March 1915 where he was, for a time, Officer Commanding 1st Reinforcements at Havre. He was killed on 26 September 1915 in the Battle of Loos and buried on the high road on the way to Loos Cemetery. The Brigadier-General wrote that Lieutenant Piercy was ‘brave and gallant’, and the Chaplain thought he was ‘the very finest example to his men.’
Sources
Entry on p.85 [Roll of Honour page], Mentioned on Framed Borough Road College Roll of Honour, Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website, Secondary source information provided by Douglas Craik (taken from Commonwealth War Graves Commission), 1902 Annual Report, and De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour (available through http://www.findmypast.co.uk/).