Percival Wrighton was born in about August 1893 in the historic English market town of Farnham, just outside of Aldershot. One of 14 children to Thomas Wrighton and Elizabeth Atkin, at the age of 18 he emigrated to Western Australia seemingly by himself.
Percy lived in Cottesloe and found employment transporting goods by cart. He played football for the YMCA club during the 1914 Junior First league season, and cricket for Subiaco-Leederville during the summer that followed.
In January 1915 Percy enlisted with the 16th Battalion, serving as a Private. He landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in June but three months later was evacuated to hospital in Mudros, Greece, suffering enteritis. A reorganisation of the AIF in March 1916 saw him transferred to the newly formed 48th Battalion.
Between 5 and 7 August, the 48th Battalion endured what was said to be heaviest artillery barrage ever experienced by Australian troops, suffering 598 casualties in fighting around the village of Pozieres. One of those casualties was Percy, who received a gun shot wound to the back, shrapnel wounds to the left buttock and a minor wound to the right hand.
Percy’s war was over. After initial treatment in France, he was admitted to the 2nd Western General Hospital in Manchester, England, and later spent time recovering at the 3rd Auxiliary Australian Hospital in Dartford. He was discharged from hospital in December and seven months later was invalided home to Perth.
It is probable Percy was the Wrighton that turned out for Burnback Athletic in the winter of 1919, after which the club folded. He played cricket through to 1927 for his employer, the Tramways Car Barn, where his teammates included fellow returned serviceman Jack Berlinksy, who played football for Thistle and Perth City amongst others.
In February 1919 Percy married Murchison-born Gertrude Ing. The newly weds set up home on Hay Street, Subiaco, and in the years that followed welcomed the arrival of two children, Inga and Frederick, who both served in World War 2.
Percival Wrighton was 91 years of age when he passed away on 1 June, 1985, in Bentley.