Private Percy Mansall James Wavell
1st Battalion, Oxfordshire &
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
8/05/1916
1914-15 Star
Only son of Sydney & Selina Wavell of 6 Great Union
Street, St Helier, Jersey.
Died whilst a Prisoner of War at Shumran Camp, aged
28 years
NEWS ITEM in Jersey Evening Post
of Tuesday 4 July 1916
Another Jerseyman Taken Prisoner. Mr S
Wavell of 6 Great Union Street has received notification
from the Depot of the 1st Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
that his son, Private P Wavell, was amongst those taken
prisoner when the Battalion capitulated at Kut al Amarah
on 24 April 1916.
NEWS ITEM in Jersey Evening Post
of Friday 13 December 1918
Roll of Honour. We regret to state that
yet another Jersey soldier has been reported as having
died whilst a prisoner of war in the hands of the cruel
Turks. We refer to Private Percy M J Wavell of the 1st
Battalion Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, only son
of Mr & Mrs S Wavell of 6 Great Union Street. This
soldier formed part of the 6th Division which was besieged
in Kut el Amara from 4 December 1915 and reduced by
starvation to surrender on 29 April 1916. The late soldier
was one of a large party which was marched about 8 miles
up the river to Shumran a bare piece of the desert where
they lay unsheltered in sun and rain. Here, after being
practically starved, they were given indigestible fare
and, with no help from the Turkish medical department,
a large number of deaths took place from gastro-enteritis
and dysentery. Unfortunately the official news has now
come through that Private Wavell succumbed on 8 May
1916 in his 28th year. We tender the parents our sincere
sympathy in their sorrow.
