[spidge]

Captain Percy Herbert Cherry

Unit: 26th Battalion, 7th Brigade, 2nd Division
Action: 26 March 1917, Lagnicourt, France
Cherry, 21, was ordered to take his company and capture the village of Lagnicourt, held by about 250 Germans.
The citation says: "After all the officers of his company had become casualties, he carried on with care and determination in the face of fierce opposition and cleared the village of the enemy. He sent frequent reports of progress made and when held up by an enemy strong point, he organised machine-gun and bomb parties and captured the position.

"His leadership, coolness, and bravery set a wonderful example to his men. Having cleared the village, he took charge of the situation and beat off the most resolute and heavy counter-attacks made by the enemy. Wounded about 6.30am, he refused to leave his post and there remained, encouraging all to hold out at all costs, until, about 4.30pm, this very gallant officer was killed by an enemy shell.''

Biography: Although born in Drysdale, Victoria on 4 June 1895, Cherry moved to Tasmania aged seven and fitted in like a local.
His family ran an apple orchard at Cradoc, and young Cherry soon became an expert apple packer, winning the apple case-making championship at the Launceston fruit show.
But there was more than the red fruit of the Apple Isle in his life -- Cherry also sang in the church choir, played cornet in a local band and served in the cadet corps.

He enlisted in the AIF in March 1915, having been commissioned early in the 93rd Infantry Regiment, and served with the 26th Battalion in Gallipoli, where he was wounded shortly before the Diggers were evacuated.

Transferred to the 7th Machine-gun Company, Cherry narrowly missed being killed by a German officer who was mortally wounded in an exchange between the two men, taking a packet of letters from the dying enemy soldier which he promised to post.

He is buried in the Queant Road Cemetery, Buissy, France, having never married.