Percy was commissioned by the Western Australia Massed Choir Festival in 2018 under the direction of Mary-Anne Goyder.
Percy Archibald Button was born on 22 August 1892 in the Marylebone Workhouse in London, England. He was the illegitimate child of a kitchen maid named Sarah Jane who, for reasons of her own, did not raise him. In 1910, at the age of 18, he emigrated to Western Australia where he worked in and around Perth doing odd jobs.
Like many other young men, on 1 May 1917, he enlisted into the Australian Imperial Forces, but by 20 March 1918 he was discharged and returned to Australia due to ‘congenital mental deficiency’.
Upon his return he fell into a life of vagrancy and throughout the years, he once again worked odd jobs around Perth including bottle collecting, paper selling and performing acrobatic tricks. It was his acrobatics, which attracted the most attention.
Often setting himself up outside the many theatres, which once existed in Perth, Percy would tumble, somersault and entertain the crowds with handcuff tricks in the hope that some generous soul would toss a few coins into his old hat. He soon became a well-known identity to the people of Perth as well as to the police who constantly arrested him for vagrancy and on occasion, frequenting illegal Chinese gambling houses.
Time was not kind to Percy. The man who once entertained the people of Perth died from coronary thrombosis on 5 March 1954 at age 61. He was not wealthy and he had no family to make his story known. In 1996 he was first immortalised as an aerial sculpture over Hay Street.
At the time, all Percy was really doing was finding a way to live. Through his actions however he managed to contribute and bring joy to society. Immortalised in bronze on the street where he once worked, he and his story will live on for years to come.
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