Remembering World War II Percy Coleman Atwood

Name: Percy Coleman Atwood Rank: Rifleman Service No: F40870 Service: Royal Rifles of Canada, R.C.I.C. Date of Birth: September 16, 1921 Place of Birth: Riverhead, Shelburne Co., NS Date of Enlistment: July 16, 1940 Place of Enlistment: Aldershot, NS Address At Enlistment: Barrington, Shelburne Co., NS Age at Enlistment: 19 Trade: Farm hand Marital Status: Single Next of Kin: Winifred Coleman Atwood (Father) Barrington, Shelburne Co., NS Date of Death: December 23, 1941 Age at Death: 20 Memorial: Sai Wan Memorial, Victoria, Hong Kong Commemorated on Page 22 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on January 20, 21, and 22 Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil laid a wreath at the Sai Wan Memorial, in his honour, on Sunday, 7 Sept 2014. Rifleman Percy Coleman Atwood, one of twelve children, was the son of Mr. Winford (or Winnifred) Coleman Atwood (1881-1961) and Mrs. Mabel Edith (Garron) Atwood (1883-1966), of Riverhead in Barrington, Nova Scotia. His parents were married March 31, 1905 in Barrington Passage; he had five brothers and six sisters. Percy lived with at home with his parents prior to his enlistment in 1940. He initially enlisted with the West Nova Scotia Regiment. He trained at Aldershot, NS, and was assigned to the Royal Rifles of Canada where his training continued in Newfoundland. The battalion (redesignated “1st Battalion, The Royal Rifles of Canada, CASF” on Nov. 7, 1940) served in Newfoundland on garrison duty from early November 1940 to August 1941. Rifleman Atwood sailed from Canada with the Royal Rifles of Canada on October 27, 1941, in the defence of the Colony of Hong Kong. He was on a patrol party of thirty soldiers, under a British Officer, and approaching the Repulse Bay Hotel when he was killed by enemy machine gun. Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese two days later on December 25, 1941. Percy’s brother Norman Burnell Atwood also served Canada during the Second World War in the Merchant Navy. He died at the age of 35 serving as a Fireman on the SS Liverpool Packet when it was sunk by an enemy U-boat in the Atlantic on May 30, 1942.