London 25th Regt

Medal card : (1) Lt. - 25th London Regt. (2) Commenced Norfolk Cycle Bn 5.6.15. Served France from 9.9.18. Died 18.9.18. Card address - (1) A.A. Grist Esq. (father), Highlands, Canobie Rd, Forest Hill, SE23. (2) A.A. Grist Esq. (father), 217 Lower Addiscombe Rd, Croydon, Surrey.

In Memory of

Lieutenant Percival Charles Hugh GRIST

London Regiment (Cyclists) 25th Bn. attd. 2nd/2nd Bn. London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)

who died age 31 on 18 September 1918

Son of Arthur Algernon and Elizabeth Martha Grist, of "Coombes Croft," 19, Bencombe Rd., Purley, Surrey.

Remembered with honour Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery, Epehy.

Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Epehy is a village between Cambrai and Peronne about 18 kilometres north-east of Peronne. Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery is a little west of the village and on the north side of the road to Saulcourt.

Historical Information

The village of Epehy was captured at the beginning of April 1917. It was lost on 22 March 1918 after a spirited defence by the Leicester Brigade of the 21st Division and the 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers. It was retaken (in the Battle of Epehy) on 18 September 1918, by the 7th Norfolks, 9th Essex and 1st/1st Cambridgeshires of the 12th (Eastern) Division.

The cemetery takes its name from the Ferme du Bois, a little to the east. Plots I and II were made by the 12th Division after the capture of the village, and contain the graves of officers and men who died in September 1918 (or, in a few instances, in April 1917 and March 1918). Plots III-VI were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields surrounding Epehy and the following smaller cemeteries:-

Deelish Valley Cemetery, Epehy, in the valley running from South-West to North-East a mile East of Epehy village. It contained the graves of 158 soldiers from the United Kingdom (almost all of the 12th Division) who fell in September, 1918.

Epehy New British Cemetery, on the South side of the village, contained the graves of 100 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in August, 1917-March, 1918 and in September, 1918.

Epehy R.E. Cemetery, 150 yards North of the New British Cemetery. It contained the graves of 31 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in April-December, 1917, and of whom 11 belonged to the 429th Field Company, Royal Engineers.

The cemetery now contains 997 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 235 of the burials are unidentified but there are additional special memorials to 29 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to two casualties buried in Epehy New British Cemetery, whose graves could not be found when that cemetery was concentrated.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

[Courtesy of Commonwealth War Graves Commission]