Percy McCarthy was born in August 1890 in Islington, London the eighth and youngest child born to Thomas McCarthy and Frances Mary Warrener. Their other children were; Emma, Thomas, Dominick, George, Charles, Harry and Jack.

Percy’s father Thomas and two of his older brothers worked in the print trade and his oldest brother Thomas was a ‘Linen Draper’s Clerk’ in 1891, but he would go on to become a councillor in Hemel Hempstead. Two of Percy’s older brothers also served during the Great War in the Royal Field Artillery and the Royal Navy.

Percy’s father died in 1893 leaving Frances to raise the children and by 1901 only Harry and Percy were still at home with their mother. By the time of the next Census, Percy had found work as a Barman and is listed as ‘visiting’ the Waterton family in Elgin Avenue less than a mile from Lord’s Cricket Ground.

When war broke out Percy enlisted with the East Surrey Regiment attesting at Hampstead, Middlesex in October 1914. He was posted to the 8th battalion and went to Purfleet near Dartford to start his basic training. Early in 1915 the Battalion moved to Colchester and finally in May it transferred to Salisbury Plain to await orders for mobilisation.

These orders came in July and Percy entrained with his comrades on the 27th July 1915 and sailed from Southampton, arriving in Boulogne the following morning. In September Percy saw action in the Battle of Loos before the East Surreys moved to the area around Albert in spring 1916 in preparation for the first phase of the Battle of the Somme.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the East Surrey’s were ordered to capture Montaubin Ridge and during what became known as the “Football Charge”, when ‘B’ Company went into the attack dribbling two footballs across ‘No Man's Land’, the 8th Surreys was one of the few battalions to reach and hold their objective. On that day, the 8th Battalion won two DSOs, two MCs, two DCMs and nine MMs, but 446 officers and men were killed or wounded.

The East Surreys “Football Charge” was huge news in Britain and around the world, lauded as an outstanding example of British courage. The German newspapers dismissed it as an outstanding example of British insanity. In the Daily Mail, house poet “Touchstone” wrote a tribute:

"On through the hail of slaughter,

Where gallant comrades fall,

Where blood is poured like water,

They drive the trickling ball. 

The fear of death before them,

Is but an empty name;

True to the land that bore them,

The Surreys played the game."

Percy was killed in the initial attack on Saturday, 1st July 1916.

He was reported wounded in the Hemel Gazette but in fact he had already been Killed in Action by the time the report was published.

Percy is Remembered with Honour on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, Pier and Face 6B and 6C.

He was 25 years old when he died.

Percy was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.