Percy Arthur Earnest Collins, Petty Officer (P/J 68167), was born in Portsmouth on September 1st 1901, the first son of Percival George Collins, who served in the Royal Navy as a sick bay steward from 1898 to 1921, and his wife Mary Ann Collins, née Brooks.
Petty Officer Collins was a Greenwich School Boy and joined the Royal Navy in 1917, serving until his death in 1941. He was awarded a Good Conduct and Long Service Medal in 1934, and promoted to Petty Officer in 1937. He joined HMS Dunedin on November 17th 1940.
In 1930, he married Dorothy Beatrice Owens, with whom he had three children.