Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

16/10/1916

Date of Discharge

04/08/1919

Place of Enlistment

Melbourne, Victoria

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Percy' or 'Perce'

Date of Birth

10/02/1887

Place of Birth

Melbourne, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Canberra ACT

Occupation

Fireman

Next of Kin

George Douglas (father), Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria

Service Number

3147

Final Rank

Gunner

Final Unit

36 Heavy Artillery Group AIF

Percy Douglas was born in 1887 in Melbourne and was the Territory's chief fire officer when he enlisted on 16 October 1916 with the 36th Heavy Artillery Group as a Gunner. He served in France and Belgium from May 1917 and returned to Australia in May 1919 before being discharged on 4 August 1919. He was one of the first presidents of the Canberra Returned Soldier's Club (now the Canberra Club), founded the Canberra branch of St. John's Ambulance Association, was a life member of the ACT Cricket Association and the Canberra Swimming Club and at various times president of the National Football League, Kingston Tennis Club, the Canberra Rugby League, the Ainslie Tennis Club and the Ainslie Cricket Club and assisted in the foundation of Canberra Legacy. Douglas also held a lease to a soldier settlers' block in the Narrabundah area. He died on 25 April 1955 at home whilst listening to the Dawn Service on the radio. He is buried in the ex-services portion of Woden Cemetery and is commemorated by the 'Perce Douglas Memorial Playing Fields' in Nicholls and Percy Douglas Lane in Kingston.

Lyall Gillespie, 'Early Verse of the Canberra Region', 1994
Lyall Gillespie, 'Ginninderra - Forerunner to Canberra', 1992
Lyall Gillespie, 'The Southwell Family, pioneers of the Canberra district', 1988
'Stand-to', RSL (ACT Branch), January-February 1954
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'On the Somme is where I have found you', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
National Library of Australia: Country Women's Association of NSW (Canberra Branch) History, 1959 (manuscript call no. NLA MS 734)
Queanbeyan Age - 24 July 1914, 28 January 1916, 5 October 1916, 9 October 1916, 22 July 1919, 31 October 1919, 28 November 1919, 10 May 1921
The Canberra Times - 26 April 1955
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.4, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
Australian Dictionary of Biography online
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/adbonline.htm (entry for Gilbert Eric Douglas)
Canberra & District Historical Society, Canberra Soccer Team, 1914 (photograph 2534)
Image donated by Michael Hall
Michael Hall, 'Ainslie and the Great War', Canberra Historical Journal (Dec. 2010), Canberra & District Historical Society