58529: Bronze Memorial Plaque for 2nd Lieutenant Percy John Rodriguez

Second Lieutenant PERCY JOHN RODRIGUEZ 23rd Battalion, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. who died aged 24 on Tuesday, 20th March 1917 at Noreuil on the Battlefields of the Somme. He was the eldest son of Francis (Filomeno) and Maud Genevieve (neé Miller) Rodriguez of the Continental Hotel, Broome, Western Australia. Percy was the first white boy born in Broome in January 1892. He was educated at Christian Brothers Aqinas College, St George's Terrace, Perth W.A. and Xavier College, Kew, Victoria. He was a dental student at the Melbourne Dental College before enlisting in Melbourne on 1st June 1915. His basic training was undertaken at the Broadmeadows Military Camp to the north of Melbourne. He arrived in France via England on the 5th September 1916. Percy Rodriguez joined his unit on 23rd September 1916 and was promoted Second Lieutenant from Sergeant on 3rd February 1917, a position he held for 45 days when he was killed on the outskirts of Noreuil in March 1917. He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, just to the right of the central doorway. The concrete German bunker that created the havoc inflicted upon the 23rd Battalion on that morning in March 1917 is still visible in the small village of Noreuil, just off the main square. Members of his extensive family have been visiting the tiny war cemetery at Noreuil for the last 90 years.