James Percival (Percy) Wood was born at 2 Chatsworth Place, Harrogate on 21st January 1885, one of ten children born to George Henry Wood and Annie Elizabeth Wood. At the time of the 1911 Census, he was living with his parents at Oak Dene, Pannal and assisting his father in the family bakery.
Percy voluntarily enlisted into the West Yorkshire Regiment on 25th or 26th August 1915 and was posted to France on 9th December to join the regiment's 1st Battalion. After being wounded in May 1916, he had rejoined the battalion when it went into the trenches in the Cambrin sector on 10th February 1917 to relieve the 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry (D.L.I.). Over the night that followed, the battalion came under hostile shell fire, apparently in retaliation for a raid made by the D.L.I. The battalion war diary recorded two killed and seven wounded on the 10th, with another man wounded on the 11th.
Percy Wood died of wounds on 11th February 1917 at No. 58 (West Riding) Casualty Clearing Station and lies buried in Lillers Communal Cemetery. The inscription on his headstone, chosen by his parents, reads BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHO DIE IN THE LORD.