▶Date of birth:  10 January 1870        Place of birth: Norwood, Surrey

▶Father: James Bickerton Preston      Mother: Josephine Henrietta Penfold

▶Spouse(s): Lily Catherine Finch      Date(s) of marriage:  12 September 1899     Place(s) of marriage: St Mary Magdalene’s Church, St Leonard’s-on-Sea, Sussex

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Percy was the youngest son of James Bickerton Preston, of Trehurst, Upper Norwood, hop merchant, and his wife Josephine Henrietta (née Penfold). He was educated as a boarder as Ascham House School (1881 census), at Harrow School 1884-7, in Christchurch, Hampshire, and matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, BA (fourth-class honours, Theological school) 1892, MA 1895, studying also at Leeds Clergy School before his ordination. While he was at Oxford he joined the Freemasons, at the Apollo University Lodge; he resigned in August 1896. He was ordained Deacon in 1893, and Priest (both St Albans) in 1894.

In 1893 he was licensed Curate of St Mary’s, Chelmsford, where the local papers record him playing football, cricket, and tennis as well as carrying out his clerical duties. He moved in 1895 to become Curate of Hove, Brighton. In 1898 he transferred locally to become Curate of Aldrington, Hove, and in the following year he married Lily Catherine, younger daughter of Major-General A. U. Hamilton Finch, of Salisbury Road, Hove.

He and his wife came to Cheltenham when he was appointed Curate of All Saints’ Church in 1899 (where he played cricket for the All Saints’ team), and lived until 1903 at 13 Pittville Villas (now 42 Prestbury Road). He was then appointed Vicar at St Helen’s Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Unfortunately his health was poor, and in 1905 he had to take leave of absence to travel with his wife to Germany for treatment from a throat and lung specialist. In 1906 he decided to resign the living at Ashby, as he would have been unable to return in the immediate future.

By 1907 he had entered the Clavadel Sanatorium at Davos Platz, south-east of Zurich in the Swiss Alps, where he died in 1911, at the age of forty-one. His estate at death was sworn at just under £11,500.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Hove, Sussex      Moved from Pittville to: Ashby-de-la-Zouch

▶Date of death: 19 April 1911       Place of death: Clavadel Sanatorium, Davos Platz, Switzerland

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 8106

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden