News

Tree planting ceremony in memory of Percy Jeeves

11 July 2016

A First World War casualty whose name was immortalized as one of the best
known characters in literature is to be honoured on the centenary of his death at
the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.

On 14 July 2016 the P G Wodehouse Society will plant a tree in memory of Percy
Jeeves, a young cricketer whose skill impressed the author P G Wodehouse, and
whose name he later chose for a new short story character. That character
became Wodehouse’s most famous creation, Jeeves, the all-knowing gentleman’s
personal gentleman, a central character along with Bertie Wooster in some of the
most popular books in the English language.

The tree will be planted during the Cheltenham Cricket Festival, on the lovely
Cheltenham College Ground where Wodehouse once watched Percy Jeeves play
for Warwickshire. The poplar tree will be planted jointly by members of Jeeves’s
and Wodehouse’s families: Mr Keith Mellard, Percy Jeeves’s great-nephew, and
Sir Edward Cazalet, Wodehouse’s grandson. Members of younger generations of
both families will also be present. A memorial stone in the shape of a book will
sit alongside the tree.

The cricketer Percy Jeeves volunteered for Army service and was one of
thousands killed in the assault on High Wood on 22 July 1916. His body was
never found, lost in the mud and the horror of the Somme. His name is one of
72,000 inscribed on the Thiepval Monument, Jeeves’s only memorial until this
centenary event.

Jeeves’s name has become famous worldwide, by chance, simply because a young
author on holiday happened to see him play, liked his bowling action, and
remembered him when he needed the right name for a character. Jeeves never
knew. He was one of 34 professional cricketers* whose ‘final over’ came in the
First World War – of course, one of millions killed or injured whose service is
being remembered this month in the centenary commemorations of the Battle of
the Somme.

P G Wodehouse watched Percy Jeeves play at Cheltenham in August 1913; the
33-year-old Wodehouse had been living and working in America at that time, but
was visiting his parents in Cheltenham. Later, back in New York, he remembered
having seen Jeeves bowl: “I remember admiring his action very much,” he wrote,
and “It was just the name I wanted.”
The fictional Jeeves made his debut in a short story published in 1915 and his
character featured in 35 short stories and 11 full-length novels by P G
Wodehouse.

The P G Wodehouse Society will present Cheltenham College with a set of the
books that have ‘Jeeves’ in the title for the school library. “We are so grateful to
the College for allowing us to place Percy’s memorial in their grounds,” said
Society Chairman, Hilary Bruce. “We are keen to encourage young readers to
enjoy P G Wodehouse’s glorious writing so we are especially glad to present
these books as a memento of the day.

“Ours is a thriving society of Wodehouse enthusiasts with around 1,000
members and we encourage everyone who appreciates Wodehouse’s work to
join.”

Those also present for the ceremony will include Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant
of Gloucestershire Dame Janet Trotter; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire the Rt Hon
the Countess Bathurst; and representatives of Percy Jeeves’s old regiment, now
the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Warwickshire County Cricket Club. Senior
representatives of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, organisers of the
Cheltenham Cricket Festival, and Cheltenham College, on whose ground the
tournament takes place, will also be present, and the P G Wodehouse Society
gratefully acknowledges the enthusiastic encouragement and support of both
organisations. Proceedings will be overseen by the P G Wodehouse Society
Chairman, Ms Hilary Bruce.

LOCATION AND TIME

The tree will be planted and the memorial unveiled at 1.00pm on Thursday, 14
July 2016, during the Cheltenham Cricket Festival. The event takes place at the
Cheltenham College Ground, Cheltenham College, Bath Road, Cheltenham GL53
7LD. The tree will be planted to the right of the Pavilion.

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