Percival Nobbs

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Percival John Nobbs was born in April 1888 and was christened at St. Peter's Church, Hoveton. His parents, John and Emily, came from the locality having been born at Ashmanhaugh and Neatishead respectively. By 1891 John and Emily had moved to Roughton where John was working at Manor Farm as an agricultural labourer but ten years later they were living in Erpingham. By then Percival had left school and aged 13 was described as a cattle feeder, perhaps working on the same farm as his father, but by 1911 both John and Percival had changed occupations and were employed as gardeners though still living in Erpingham.

By 1914 however, when Percival signed up in Norwich as a volunteer with the Norfolk Regiment (no. 8461) he gave his address as Tasburgh so it seems likely that he had been taken on as a gardener at one of the bigger properties in the village, such as Tasbugh Hall, Rainthorpe Hall or the Rectory. It's not known which of the three volunteer battalions, the 7th, 8th or 9th, he joined or whether he saw any action with them but at some point by 1916 he had transferred to the 6th (Service) Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment (no. 28200), perhaps as a result of losses sustained by them on the Somme. The battle of the Ancre Valley to capture the German stronghold at Beaumont-Hamel, just to the north of Thiepval, commenced on the 14th November and two days later Private Percival Nobbs became the fourth Tasburgh casualty of the Somme campaign, which finally ended on the 18th. He was buried in the Wagon Road Cemetery at Beaumont-Hamel.