Story
Percival Hands, who was landlord of the Britannia Hotel in Ashley Cross, Parkstone, volunteered for the Royal Garrison Artillery, little knowing that, while he was serving with the colours, an explosion would take place back home. Early one morning, towards the end of 1916, a gas explosion rocked his pub in Britannia Road, Parkstone. No-one was severely injured though the women on the premises had some very lucky escapes. The pub was being run by the landlady, Mrs Mary Maud Lizette Hands, who had been married to Percival for 14 years. They had one child who was about nine years old at the time. At 4.55am he mother, Mrs Blandford, smelt gas. The hotel was searched with the exception of the tearoom that was not often used. Nothing amiss was found. At 7am the family got up and by now the smell of gas was powerful. Mrs Blandford opened the tearoom door and was almost overpowered by the fumes. She noticed that the pub's parrot had suffocated. Immediately she shut the door an explosion occurred in the hall. The door was blown off its hinges with a knob flying 50 yards. Luckily Mrs Blandford escaped injury but Mrs Hands' hair was singed and the flying door had injured her arm. Both ladies felt ill from the shock. The fumes were so strong that a man who came to fix the gas leak was overcome and had to be conveyed home. A neighbour, Mr Carter, proprietor of a cab company, helped extinguish the flames that left curtains and some woodwork burned. Percival Hands volunteered for service on 9 December 1915 (the month before the conscription Act came into force.) He had previously served with the Dorset Regiment. He was 5ft 9ins or just under, weighed 120 stone and had a 36ins chest. One eye had 6/6 perfect vision but the other, his left not. Percival also had slight varicose veins but not enough to affect his service. He was mobilised on 16 October 1916 joining the RGA. Within five months Percival was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. In May of 1917 he was posted to the164th Siege Battery of the regiment (which had first been posted overseas in September 1916.) That that same month of May 1917 he spent just over a week in a field hospital suffering from sickness. Siege Batteries in the RGA were armed with heavy howitzers, that fired large calibre high explosive shells A year later, on 19 May 1918, he was promoted to Lance Bombardier and was finally demobbed in 1919. He received the British War and Victory Medals three years later. Percival Thomas Jeffrey Hands was born in Oxford in 1880, the son of Jeffrey and Catherine Hands. His father was a carpenter and joiner and they lived at 69 James Street, Iffley Road. The baby was baptised at Holy Trinity church in Oxford on October 31 of that year. A Jeffrey Hands died in 1890 in Christchurch at the age of 35. Was this Percival's father? The following year a widowed Kate Hands, born in Oxford was keeping a lodging house at Holdenhurst; she had a 10-year-old son called Percy. By 1901, Percival's widowed mother, Catherine, had remarried. His step-father was Harry Wakefield, who had a wholesale printing business. Percival married Mary, the daughter of a grocer, at Longfleet Parish Church on 16 June 1902. Percival, then working as a wholesale stationer, was 21 and his bride 22. Both their fathers were dead. Percival and Mary took over the running of the Bankes Arms in Corfe Castle some time in or before 1905 (when Percival, a publican, was registered as a juror.) It was where their son, Neville Percival Jeffrey Hands, was born on 16 May 1907. The Hands were still living at the Bankes Arms in the Square in 1913. The following year they had moved to Parkstone, to run the Britannia. Mrs Mary Maud Hands was listed at the Britannia Hotel in the local Kelly's Directory. Soon after, it had changed hands. (Between 1925 and 1929, a Percival Hands crossed the Atlantic from Southampton and New York many times, working as a ship's steward on board, White Star liners. First, he served on the Majestic, next the Olympic – a sister ship of the ill-fated Titanic – and then the Homeric. Was he the same Percival? He was born in the same year and was also around 5ft 9ins weighing in, by now, at between 10 and 11 stone.) Percival, who had been living at 4 Bonham Road, Bournemouth, died on 9 January 1936 at the age of 55. Probate was granted to his widow, Mary, and he left effects to the value of £217 12s. In 1939, a Mary M. Hands, born on the 17 April 1880, was running a boarding house at 23 Stafford Road, Bournemouth. * Please contact us if you wish to suggest any amendments or additions.
Subdivision
- Royal Garrison Artillery