12 year old Percy Munns (born Barnack 1898) and his 6 year old brother Cecil William (born Stamford 1904/5) were both in St George’s Children’s Home in 1911. Their parents were Fanny (née Beck) and William Munns, an Agricultural Engine Driver. There were at least 2 other children Reginald (born 1896/7) and Elsie Ann (born 1900).

In 1901 the family were living at 9 Gas Street, Stamford but sometime after Cecil William’s birth the family broke up. It seems likely that their parents died but the records have not yet been located. While Percy and Cecil went to St George’s, Reginald went to live with his grandparents in Bainton and Elsie went to her father’s sister, Ada Nottingham, in Peterborough. During the War both boys gave B Munns of Bainton (sister or aunt?) as their next of kin.

In July 1912, Stamford Board of Guardians agreed to send Percy to the Gordon Boys’ Home at a cost of £8 a year. A year later they received a report of his good progress there.

Percy enlisted in the 1st Northants Regiment in Peterborough. He served in Flanders and was awarded the Victory Medal as well as the British. He was wounded and would have been taken by field ambulance to the Casualty Clearing Station at Mendinghem (an ironic name given by the troops – ‘Mending them’) where he died of his wounds on 3rd March 1918. He is buried in Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Poperinghe which is not far from Ypres. His name is on Bainton & Ashby War Memorial and on the Gordon Boys’ Memorial.

Percy’s brother, Reginald, enlisted in 1915 and served in the Royal Engineers Railway Troop as a sapper in Egypt. He served through the war and was demobbed in November 1919. In 1922 he was married to Louisa Wheeler in the Stamford area and died in Leicester in 1985.