113618 Pte. Percy William Wardle was born in Manchester, England, on September 30th, 1887, to Joseph and Lennete (nèe Anderson) Wardle. He had an elder brother, Joseph (b.1881) and sister, Edith (b.1883).
By 1908 the family had moved south, to Brighton, where his father passed away that year. Late the following year Percy married Florence Lillian Scott, and whilst the couple had a son, also Percy, in 1910, sadly he passed away within the first 3 months of his life.
By 1911 both Percy and his brother, Joseph, were working in Tunbridge Wells as shoe repairers, whilst their mother was running a shop in Brighton. Whilst it is likely that Percy had previously travelled to Nova Scotia in 1908, he and his recently widowed sister, Edith (who had married one Joseph Carter and previously returned from an emigration to Canada in 1911) and her son, Edmund, headed back to Canada in 1913, though there is no mention of his wife, Florence by this time. However, by 1915 Edith had remarried, taking one Leonard Allen as her husband.
Having served six years in the Imperial Yeomanry, in England, Percy answered the call in 1915, and attested into the 8th Canadian Mounted Rifles, on July 31st, 1915, in Barriefield, Ontario. This was three days after his brother-in-law, Leonard Allen, had joined the regiment.
With divisional restructuring occurring in early 1916, Percy and fellow 8th CMR soldiers were transferred to the 4th CMR, who they joined in the field in February.
Whilst serving without notable incident, Percy, though miraculously managing to survive it himself, lost his brother-in-law during the devastating 'Battle for Mount Sorrel', on June 2nd. Sadly though, Percy too was lost, killed in action on September 30th, 1916, by attritional heavy shelling whilst the regiment was in support of the 1st and 2nd CMRs near Pozières, France.
His sister, Edith, returned to England in 1916, and though whilst cited as next of kin on his paperwork nothing is known of his wife Florence's story throughout this time.
Pte. Percy William Wardle is commemorated on the Vimy memorial.
Detailed biography information was supplied by Paula Pocock and abridged here by 4th CMR researcher David Kavanagh.