Percy Marston

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work: Knaresborough branch

Died: 20 September 1917

Percy Ingram Marston was born on 14 October 1893, the only son of Charles Bowland Marston, a solicitor's clerk, and his wife Alice Mary. He was educated at Ripon Grammar School. In January 1910, when he was 16 years old, he went to work for National Provincial Bank of England as apprentice at its Knaresborough branch. He completed his apprenticeship three years later, and was promoted to a clerkship at the same branch. In 1916 his manager there noted that he was 'quick, active and intelligent: a good clerk generally. He should now be tested at a large branch I think.'

By that date, however, Marston was already away on military duty. He had joined up in October 1915, becoming a Private in the Royal Fusiliers. He was invalided home with trench fever in September 1916. Upon recovering, he received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry, and returned to the Western Front in August 1917.

Second Lieutenant Percy Ingram Marston was killed by an enemy aircraft on 20 September 1917. He was 23 years old. Two evenings earlier, he had dined with his commanding officer, who recalled the occasion in a letter to Marston's mother: 'he was so bright and cheery, talking over Ripon and other experiences out here. We shall all miss him very much, and his name will ever be honoured in this Battalion.'