By NOEL MURPHY
Percy Cherry was no stranger to bravery when rushed two machine-gun posts during an attack at Malt Trench on The Somme in March 1917.
Six months earlier he was injured in a duel with a German officer at Pozieres. He was out of action for three months and promoted to lieutenant before throwing himself back into action.
Mr Cherry was temporarily a captain when he and his men found a gap in the enemy wire and took aim at German machinegun nests. He captured one single-handedly and turned the machinegun on the fleeing Germans before he was wounded.
Mr Cherry had been wounded before at Gallipoli in December 1915. A company sergeant major, he was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to Fleurbaix, Messines and the Somme.
On 26 March 1917 his battalion was ordered to storm the village of Lagincourt, on the Hindenburg Line, where it met fierce resistance.
After all other officers were dead or wounded, Mr Cherry solidered on to clear the village of the enemy. But the Germans counter-attacked and the battle raged all day long.
Wounded in the leg, Mr Cherry remained at his post until a shell killed him late in the late afternoon.
He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for “bravery beyond description”. A Military Cross followed.
This week Percy Cherry Park was named in his honour at Curlewis, near where he was born at Drysdale in 1895.
Descendant and local resident Bill Westhead said the naming helped heal the generational pain of the family’s losses while recognising the commitment of the Great War’s soldiers.
“It is a symbolic day, not for the glorification of war but for the reverence of the participants,” Mr Westhead said.
“When a serviceman or woman is deployed into combat their extended family is on watch. There is no peace.
“The huge casualties are emotionally devastating on families and communities and the effects remain in their social fabric.
“As part of this naming ceremony, we should all remember the Anzacs and those who followed and fought to preserve our country’s democratic rights and the enabling of free speech.
“It’s a freedom we need to cherish every day.”
