East Yorkshire Regiment
Date of death: 08/09/1918 (aged 27)
BORN BROUGH, EAST YORKSHIRE, 09/04/1891. THIRD SON OF CHARLES WILLIAM SKEVINGTON, (1857-1937) & ANN MOISLEY (1861-1938), OF ‘THE HAWTHORNES’, BROUGH & HULL. HIS FIANCEE WAS FANNY BAINBRIDGE, WHO LIVED AT 1 BOSWELL AVENUE, FOUNTAIN ROAD, HULL. PRIOR TO ENLISTING, HE WORKED AS A PORTER, FOR THE HULL & BARNSLEY RAILWAY LINE.
HE ENLISTED AS A PRIVATE IN THE ‘HULL COMMERCIALS’, THE 10TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. SAW ACTION IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. WOUNDED THREE TIMES. PROMOTED TO SERGEANT. COMMISSIONED JULY 1917. RETURNED TO FRANCE, APRIL 1918. TRANSFERRED TO “B” COMPANY, 11TH EAST YORKSHIRES. HE WAS KILLED IN ACTION ON 08/09/1918. HIS BODY WAS FOUND ON 11/10/1918. (The War Diary reports that the battalion made an attack that day. It says at the end of the operation on the 9th that there were no officers killed but one is missing. The Hull Daily Mail article supports the theory he was the missing officer. His CO told his family that he was shot in the head and would have died instantly. )
HIS BROTHER, PRIVATE, GEORGE SKEVINGTON, LIVERPOOL REGIMENT, WAS A WELL KNOWN GOLF PROFESSIONAL IN PRE WAR DAYS, AND WAS KILLED IN ACTION, ON 20/06/1917. HIS THREE OTHER BROTHERS ALSO SERVED.
WILLIAM’S PERCY SKEFFINGTON’S DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 18/10/1918, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. *
HE IS BURIED AT TROIS ARBRES CEMETERY, STEENWERCK, FRANCE. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “HE DID HIS DUTY”
