Mr Percival Frederick Sharp was born in Camberwell, Surrey, England on 18 December 1882 and baptised on 2 May the following year in All Saints Church in Deptford, Kent.
He was the son of Granville Sharp (b. 1854) and Emily Mylius (b. 1857), both natives of London who were married in Sunderland, Durham in 1879, and he had one known sibling, his elder brother Granville (b. 1880).
His family appear on the 1881 census living at 17 Vivian Road, Camberwell and his father was described as an unemployed Mate in the Merchant Service. His father later died in 1887 and by the time of the 1891 census Percival and his brother, their mother probably unable to cope with them financially, were inmates at St Mary's Orphange in North Hyde, Middlesex. Their mother died before the close of the year.
Percival's movements over the following years are uncertain. His brother Granville later worked as a manager of a brewery in Nottinghamshire before marrying Lois Muriel Ward (b. 1880) and settling in Hertfordshire where they raised a family. Percival, it seems, suffered from psychiatric problems and when he appeared on the 1911 census he was an inmate at London County Lunatic Asylum in Norwood, Middlesex and was described as an unmarried labourer aged 29 years.
He boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger together with Henry James Beauchamp, travelling on joint ticket number 244358 which cost £26. His destination in the USA or reason for travelling is unknown and how he came to be acquainted with Mr Beauchamp is also a mystery.
Percival Sharp died in the sinking. His body, if recovered, was never identified.
His brother Granville remained in Hertfordshire for the rest of his life and died in 1939.
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