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1888 Nov 28. Born Fulham, London
1891 census at Fulham
1901 census at St Mary Stamford Brook, Hammersmith
1910 Apr 25 Marriage to Rachel Delay
1911 census at 46 Percy Road W (MIC address in Percy RD)
1914 Nov 3. Landed in France
1915 Aug 5 Citation for DCM gazetted.
The British attack on the enemy’s position near Rouges Bancs on May 9th 1915, was a very disappointing and a very costly business, most of the ground which the valour of our infantry had won having to be subsequently abandoned, owing to the weight of the German gunfire. In this action a Territorial Battalion, the 13th (Kensington) of the London Regiment, on the extreme British left, covered itself with glory, performing, according to the general commanding the Fourth Corps-Sir Henry Rawlinson a feat of arms surpassed by no battalion in this great war.” The Kensington carried three lines of German trenches with the bayonet, and held them until they were rendered untenable by shell and machine gun fire, when they fell back with but four company officers left. On that day one D.S.O. and no less than four D.C.M.’s were won by these gallant Territorials among the recipients of the latter decoration being Acting Sergeant Percy Reginald Pike, who gained it in the following circumstances: Acting Sergeant Pike was on the right flank of his battalion, in charge of three blocking parties, each consisting of a lance corporal, six bombers and six men with spades, and picks, whose duty it was to block a captured trench as soon as the bombers had driven the enemy for a sufficient distance along it. On reaching the German trench, the bombers got to work at once, and had driven the Huns back for about one hundred yards when they ran short of the bombs. Pike called for a volunteer to fetch a fresh supply, and three men at once offered themselves for this most dangerous mission an mounted the parapet together. But they got no further, for one of the cunningly concealed machine guns on the flanks of the German position, whose enfilading fire wrought such havoc among our troops that day, was immediately turned upon them, and all three fell riddled with bullets. Undismayed by the fate of his comrades, Pike determined to go himself, and leaving a corporal in charge of the party, he, in his turn, mounted the parapet and succeeded in getting safely over it. The British lines were some two hundred and fifty yards away, and the ground between was being very heavily shelled, to prevent reinforcements being sent to our men in the captured trenches. But for part of the way he was able to make use of a ditch, filled with water and half choked with dead bodies, and he succeeded in gaining our trenches and in returning with two sacks of bombs and grenades, and with a promise from an officer of the 2nd Scottish Rifles that he would send a machine gun to his assistance. The machine gun and its team arrived just as the bombs were giving out again, and the trench was blocked and the gun mounted. Pike remained with the Cameronian’s assisted them in working the gun until the order to retire came. The Kensington’s came out of that terrible ordeal reduced to a mere shadow, and out of Sergeant Pike’s party only two men besides he returned. Sergeant Pike, who received his medal “for conspicuous gallantry and ability,” is twenty-six years of age, and his home is at Shepherd’s Bush, London. Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'
1916 Apr 9. Commissioned 2nd Lt. Srjt. Percy Reginald Pike to be 2nd Lt. in London Regt
1916 Jul 1 Taken POW in 18th London
1918 May 16 Interned in Holland
1918 Nov 22 Repatriated back to UK
1919 Mar 28 The repercussions of internment in Holland
1920 Nov 10. Joined ADRIC with service no 1024. Posted to I Coy. Section Leader from 17 Nov. Wife at 10 Percy Road, Shepherds Bush (same on MIC)
1921 Jan 11 to 24 Jan on Leave
1921 Feb 28 Promoted Platoon Commander
1921 Mar 19. Resignation accepted
1921 Sep 14. 13th Bn. Lond. R.—Lt. P. R. Pike relinquishes his Commn. on enlistment in the R.A.F.
1956 Nov 11 Died in Andover, Hants