Percy Lee was born on Tuesday, 28th September 1897 in Adeyfield, Hemel Hempstead and baptised in St Paul’s Church on Sunday, 7th November in the same year. His parents were Enos Lee and Emma Sawyer and he had an older brother Horace Edward. The 1911 Census records that Enos and Emma had five children together, three of whom died. However, these children seem to have been from Enos’ first marriage to Sarah Ann Odell with whom he had a family of three, the youngest of which had been born twenty-six years before Percy. Horace also fought in the Great War and survived the conflict.

When Percy was born, his father Enos worked as a "Brickmaker" in the brickfields near Adeyfield and young Percy started school at nearby George Street in 1902. From there, he and Horace moved to Two Waters British School on St Valentine’s Day in 1906, after Enos had moved his family to "Vic" or Victoria Cottage on London Road in Boxmoor. It was recorded in the school register, that Percy left in October 1910 aged thirteen, to start work as a "Mill-hand". It is not known where he went to work and whilst it may have been John Dickinsons, his absence from the Company’s War Memorial in Apsley, suggests he either left its employ before the outbreak of war or that he worked in another mill. This could have been the British Paper Company in Apsley, Foster’s sawmills or the corn mill on Bury Road.

On the outbreak of war, Percy was not old enough to enlist, however, in early 1915 he volunteered and despite being a number of months short of his eighteenth birthday, he was accepted. He had travelled to Hertford to enlist, presumably because he would not be known there and this may also explain why he chose to join a unit other that the Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire Regiment. He instead joined the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment and was posted to Doncaster in Yorkshire to begin basic training. He went overseas in late 1916 and was posted to the 1/4th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s, under the orders of the 49th (West Riding) Division, arriving with his unit at the start of January 1917 at Halloy, twenty-five miles south west of Amiens.

By the middle of the year the 1/4th had moved to Belgium and was engaged in "Operation Hush" which was the allied plan to attack the Germans with amphibious landing on the north Belgian coast supported by land attacks from the south. The operation was eventually cancelled in October and Percy moved with his comrades to fight in the Battle of Poelcapelle on the 9th October 1917. This was the first significant action he experienced since he had arrived with the battalion and proved to be the last action of the Third Battle of Ypres. The appalling ground conditions made the fighting difficult and the engagement proved to be a defensive victory for the Germans, although both sides suffered heavy casualties. Despite this, the Duke of Wellington’s suffered only light casualties and Percy survived the battle.

By the Spring of 1918 Percy, by now promoted Serjeant, was preparing to go into battle again in the next allied offensive in Flanders. On 9th April he fought in the Battle of Estaires, the first action in the Battle of the Lys, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres. Over the next five days, he fought in the Battles of Messines and Bailleul, which involved the successful defence of Neuve Eglise by the 49th Division. Following a brief respite, he fought in the successful defensive action at the First Battle of Kemmel Ridge before the Battalion received orders on the 26th April to take part in an advance which was to be the Second Battle of Kemmel Ridge. It was in this action that Percy’s luck finally ran out and the Battalion War Diaries recorded him amongst the fifty-one casualties suffered in an advance and withdrawal from the ‘Cheapside’ sector near Ouderdom.

Percy was Killed in Action on Friday, 26th April 1918. His death was reported in the Hemel Gazette in early June and it revealed that he had been shot by a German sniper whilst he himself was sniping the enemy and had died instantaneously.

Percy is Remembered with Honour on the Tyne Cot Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium on Panel 82 to 85.

He was only 20 years old when he died.

Percy was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.