Bombardier Percy R. Musson was born in Toronto on December 18th, 1893 to Samuel Musson and Rachel Adelaide M. (Addie) Stewart. When Percy was 5 years old, his mother Addie died in childbirth. His father later remarried a widow, Wilhelmina Burns, whose first husband was buried in Churchville Cemetery: Mr. George Bye. George, Samuel and Wilhelmina are all memorialized together in Churchville Cemetery on one of the most unique monuments on the grounds - the tree stump stone.

          Percy was an electrician by trade before he enlisted on January 14th, 1915. He was sent to France a short while after that. Musson participated in all four attacks on the Regina Trench at The Somme, but was very seriously injured during the fourth, finally successful, attack. On October 22nd, 1916, he was taken to the No. 1 Canadian Hospital in Etaples in very grave condition due to gunshot wounds to the head and neck. He remained on the “Seriously Ill” list with a badly fractured skull until November 12th, 1916, and remained in hospital for many months, undergoing an operation to remove the depressed piece of bone from his head, and another operation to reopen and clean his head wound a month later, removing more damaged bone. On June 11th, 1917, Bombardier Musson was declared physically unfit for service, suffering from vertigo, considerable nervous tremors of the hands and head, headaches and dizziness when bending over, partial blindness, and the obvious serious wounds.  He was discharged back to Canada via a hospital ship and once home, he spent a number of months in a convalescent hospital in Toronto. Percy was honoured with a Military Medal for his efforts at the Somme “for his splendid work in assisting the observation officer of the battery to which he was attached.” A Military Medal is awarded for Bravery in Battle on Land (source: Library & Archives Canada).

         Percy did eventually return to his work as an electrician in Toronto, and some time after that he bought a farm in Richmond Hill, married, and raised a family. The pain from his war injuries unfortunately never left him (source: Article in the Durham News, Nov. 8th, 2018: Battle of the Somme earns soldier military medal, by Bryan Buttigieg),and he passed away on January 14th, 1949 at 56 years old, exactly 34 years to the day after his enlistment (source: Library & Archives Canada)

Below is a picture of Bombardier Musson taken from the Durham News article mentioned above.