245122 Gnr. Percy Alfred Vincent British Army 133rd Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery from:Wigan, Lancashire Percy Vincent was my grandfather and he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. Whilst serving with 133rd Siege Battery in France he suffered a serious head injury whilst on R&R. Ironically, he had moved forward from his normal operating area to take R&R near Ypres and it was here that a German aircraft dropped a bomb which hit the tent in which he was resting. The bomb killed everyone in the tent except my grandfather who, although seriously injured with a shrapnel wound to the head, survived for many years. He received an honourable discharge due to his wounds on 1st of December 1917 under PARA J92 XVI of King's Regs. He enlisted originally on 3rd of December 1915.
He was treated and had a metal plate inserted in his head which, when I was a little boy, he used to use to stick paper notes to his forehead using a magnet much to my delight.
After the war he recovered from his injury and continued to work as a pit-head brakeman at Wigan Colliery until his retirement in the 1950s. He subsequently died in 1968 after a short illness. His wife, Helen, pre-deceased him in 1967.
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