Lives of the First World War

Private 36117 Percy Carhart, 1st Bn. The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. Percy was born on 24th February 1898 to James and Emma Carhart in St Kew, Cornwall. The 1911 census records the family living in St Newlyn East. They then moved to Pengrugla outside the gates of the Heligan estate. Percy worked as a labourer at Heligan Gardens and left his signature on the wall of the Thunderbox Room (gardeners’ toilet) next to the date August 1914. He enlisted in 1916 when he came of age, his regiment recording him as 5ft 3 ½ inches tall. When Percy left home he told his brother Wilfred, “I will never see you again”. His older brother Ernest also enlisted but unlike Percy, returned home safe. Percy arrived in France on 15th October 1917 and was lost on the battlefield only a fortnight later during the Battle of Passchendaele. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing.

Percy Carhart left his signature on the limeplaster walls of the Thunderbox Room at Heligan, along with other Heligan Men who served in the First World War. The war service of The Gardeners of Heligan House is separately acknowledged in the Imperial War Museum’s register of war memorials. Visit www.ukniwm.org/63622 for further details. The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall, are still cultivated in the names of these past staff and are open daily except for Christmas Day.