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Lucy Mary Perkins died in August 1954 in her 90th year.

During her marriage she gave birth to seven sons and seven daughters.

Lucy was an army wife, her husband Colour Sergeant 10451 Thomas Perkins had served in the Royal Berkshire Regiment for thirty years and her two oldest sons followed him in his career as regular soldiers also serving in the Berkshire regiment.

When war was declared pensioner Thomas along with thousands of men immediately enlisted for the duration.

But Thomas was not a young man; in 1914 he was already over sixty years of age.

However, as an experienced soldier he was in demand and much needed. His task was the equipping of Reservists and help with the organisation of New Army recruits from the Regimental Depot at Brock Barracks on the Oxford Road, Reading.

Lucy may well have considered whether her husband Thomas’s action in enlisting again at his age was sound although she may have felt less anxious than she might have done in earlier times because at his age he would not have to face danger on the field of battle.

So we can only imagine how she felt when Thomas died only months into the war in March 1915 brought low by a bout of bronchitis.

The local papers reported details of Thomas’s funeral; he is buried in a registered war grave in Division 49, Grave Number 16079.

It is from the same newspaper report that information about their seven sons was obtained.

A truly patriotic and military family with three sons serving in the Royal Veterinary Corps, one in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, one in the Naval Brigade and the two oldest sons, Walter and Alfred, already regular soldiers, serving in the Royal Berkshire Regiment.

The headstone on Thomas’s grave is a private family memorial, rather than the CWGC war pattern headstone, and the inscription details reveal that Thomas is also buried with his son Archibald as well as his wife Lucy.

Archibald Frederick Perkins predeceased his mother and died in 1934 at the age of 43.

Details on the headstone reveal that he had been a recipient of the Military Medal but unfortunately it has not been possible to find further information about Archibald or the citation for his award.

That he died a relatively young man may indicate that it was from the effects of the war but this is not stated on the headstone.

On the kerb stones around the grave we learn that both Walter and Alfred were killed in action during the Great War.

Regardless of Lucy’s experience as a military wife we can only imagine how she must have felt with seven of her offspring in harm’s way.

For Lucy, 1915, was a particularly devastating year.

She lost her beloved husband early in March and on the 17 May her son Private Walter Perkins 9037, was killed in action at the Battle of Festubert.

Walter was 30 years of age and as a regular soldier had served in India before the war.

His body was lost during the battle and because he has no known grave his name is commemorated on Panel 30 of the La Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais.

The La Touret Memorial lists the names of over 13,000 men who fell in the area before 25 September 1915 and have no known grave.

Then in October 1916 Lucy Perkins received notice from her daughter in law Milly that another of her sons had been killed in action.

Company Sergeant Major Thomas Alfred Perkins, who was probably known as Alfred, was serving with the 5th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

He had been a regular soldier before the war and like his brother Walter had also served in India.

CSM Perkins had seen action in the Somme battle which started on 1 July 1916.

He was serving in the same area where the British Army used tanks for the first time in the war on the 15 September 1916.

During the battle he had been awarded the Military Cross. The citation stated: “When his company officers had been disabled he carried on with great coolness and courage during three days of intense bombardment.

"He moved freely about to keep the men at work.”

The conditions in which the men were living were described by Lieutenant Reginald Cobb of Shiplake in a letter to his parents dated 12 October 1916.

"You can't imagine what it is like here.

"We are right in the middle of guns which are firing all day.

"There is practically a continuous stream of shells.

"The whizzing through the air and the noise of the shells exploding makes a pandemonium which we get so used to that we can sleep through it, although there are miniature earthquakes most of the time.

"We have been in this region about 12 days, but, on the whole, we have not had a bad time.

"I am out, but as you can imagine, sitting on the steps of a trench with a continual roar all round and above you is not the ideal place for letter writing."

Thomas Alfred Perkins and Reginald Cobb were killed by the same shell on 13 October 1916.

Both men are buried next to each other in Bull’s Road Cemetery, Flers.

In a letter to Lucy Perkins about her son CSM Alfred Perkins the Commanding Officer writes:

“I knew that whatever I entrusted to him would be carried out to the letter. I shall never be able to replace him"

No doubt Lucy felt the loss of her husband and two sons very keenly and her sacrifice during this First World War was great.