Private Percy Charles Moreton of Stretton, joined the 1/4th King's Shropshire Light Infantry in September 1914, at the age of 19. He trained for some months in various camps in England and was drafted to France on 21 September 1915 where he took part in the Battle of Loos. He also took part in fierce fighting when the Shropshires retook a trench near Langemarck in the Third Battle of Ypres. Though it was almost unapproachable on account of the deep mud, they waded out in the dark up to their waists in slush and drove the enemy out with the point of the bayonet. The mud was so deep that many men were engulfed and suffocated, and the main body had to throw themselves down and distribute their weight to prevent being sucked down into the quagmire. The rifles were so covered and clogged with mud that shooting was out of the question and only bombs and bayonets were available for the assault. On 25 July 1917, having been wounded in the shoulder, he was sent to hospital at Tunbridge Wells. On recovery he went to Ireland as a drill instructor, having gained his certificate at Portsmouth. He went back to the Front on 6 February 1918, and was killed in action by a piece of shrapnel on 21 March 1918, near Bertincourt, one of 13 Rutland soldiers to die that day. Percy was said to have been a fine, tall soldier, being six feet four and a half inches in height, and before joining the Army was a gamekeeper to a Mr Fleetwood Hesketh of Stretton. While he is not on Stretton's war memorial he is remembered next to it inside the church which suggests he did not originally come from the village. The following information has been given to us on behalf of John Moreton who is Percy's nephew. "Percy Charles was born on the 9 Oct 1894 in Onibury, Shropshire, the third son of Thomas Henry and Alice Mary nee Morgan and one of nine children. He was baptised on 11 Nov 1894. The family lived at Wooton Cottage in the village. His father was groom and then later a bailiff. The family do not have any known links to Rutland so it is assumed that Percy came to the county before the war looking for work." Percy has no known grave and is remembered on the Arras Memorial, Bay 7.