Percy Herbert Woods was born in 1899 in Newcastle, and from a very early age was living with his father's brother and two sisters, Leonard Walter, Ducibelle Laura and Ruby Woods.

Leonard was a Clerk in the Elswick Works (steel construction and ordnance manufacture), and they initially lived in Newcastle, but they all moved to South Shields around 1905, and Percy started at Westoe Elementary School.

At the age of 11, he moved up to Westoe Secondary School, and a year later transferred to the High School, where he stayed until the age of 18.

No sooner had he turned 18 than he was called up, and entered the Training Reserve with the Northumberland Fusiliers at Rugeley Camp. Later records suggest that he transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment, serving as a Private.

Whilst on night-fighting patrol on 17-Jun-1918 he was hit in the head by a machine-gun and died.

He was buried in the Hagle Dump Cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium.