Personal information

Son of Joseph William and Elizabeth Clarke Appleby; husband of Dorothy Appleby (nee Baldwin), of Liverpool.

Percy Clarke Appleby was taken prisoner when Huntsman was captured by the German raider Admiral Graf Spee on 10 October 1939. Along with the other crew members he was transferred to the supply ship Altmark on 16 October before their ship was scuttled the following night. All prisoners were freed and returned to the UK when HMS Cossack intercepted the supply ship within Norwegian territorial waters on 16 February 1940, in an action later became known as the Altmark Incident.

Percy survived the sinking of Wayfarer on 19 August 1944, spending many hours floating on a grate with another man who did not survive.