Born in Plymouth, son of a builder and grandson of a ship portrait painter, Percy studied at Plymouth School of Art and was articled as a shipwright apprentice at Devonport Dockyard. Turning down an opportunity to study art in Rome, he went to sea, various jobs including a disastrous Pacific pearling expedition taking him around the world. By the early thirties he was crewing racing yachts for wealthy Americans and for the Hon.Bobby Somerset in the famous “Jolie Brise” taking part in the New York – Bermuda race.
The Second World War saw Percy commissioned as a sub-lieutenant working on torpedoes and gun sights back in Devonport Dockyard. After the war Percy and his wife Beatrice and three young girls moved to Falmouth, where he developed his interest in working boats, both designing and painting. He spent the rest of his life in Falmouth, making many good friends and designing and building many boats and of course painting many many watercolours. Percy passed away tragically in a house fire in Penryn in 19—leaving three daughters and five grand children. Part of his obituary states “…his extraordinary skills might of bought him a small fortune but he was never able to overcome his distaste for commerce” Certainly much of his work was unrecognized and unrewarded. But then, that was Percy!
The family is currently offering various limited editions of his watercolours and also have a collection of working boat designs, some of which are still winning races in the Falmouth working boat class.