The donor does not remember Mr Percival’s first name, nor whether he was the person who owned it and/or brought it back from the war. However, Cenotaph database lists eight men with the surname Percival who served during WW1. One of these, Lawrence Arthur PERCIVAL, Auckland Mounted Rifles, was apparently living in or near Rotorua at the time of his death. The Archives NZ website records that his Probate was lodged at the Rotorua High Court in 1974.

On this basis it is reasonable to assume that the accordion belonged to 13/3096 Lawrence Arthur Percival, Auckland Mounted Rifles, who left New Zealand on 22 February 1916, and would have served in the Sinai Palestine Campaign.