TOPIC:

The birthplace of Alphonse the waiter.


Photo courtesy of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

I mean the mill rather than the castle. The father of 4111 Trooper William Ernest Ford, 30th (Pembrokeshire) Company Imperial Yeomanry was the miller there at the time of the Boer War. I think after the war William became a colonial civil servant and was stationed in Rhodesia for a time.

A few more cards, including one from "the British and other Residents in Johannesburg" to the Soldiers of the Queen.






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.... and one from the Kimberley Club



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Christmas 1902 on board the Hospital Ship Nubia.

Hospital work continued long after the cessation of hostilities.






The Performers

Gunner GARVEY, Royal Horse Artillery [probably 70476 Gunner Christopher GARVEY, 17th Company, Western Division, Royal Garrison Artillery]
Gunner RAMSAY, Royal Field Artillery
Private HANSON, King’s Royal Rifle Corps
Private PAUL, 2nd Bn. East Yorkshire Regiment [5728 Private Henry PAUL]
Private JACKSON, 19th Hussars
Corporal FIELDSEND, 2nd Bn. King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry [3912 Corporal Frank FIELDSEND]
Private SMITH, 2nd Bn. Lincolnshire Regiment
Gunner TAYLOR, Royal Horse Artillery
Private WALLIS, Royal Sussex Regiment
Bandsman MAHER, 1st Bn. Leinster Regiment
Sergeant WHITE, 19th Hussars [3873 Sergeant Edward WHITE]
Private HOLMES, R.F.W. [sic? presumably Royal Welsh Fusiliers]
Bandsman PROSSER, 1st Bn. Staffordshire Regiment [3107 Band-Sergeant William PROSSER]
Lance-Sergeant WILLSHIRE, Royal Army Medical Corps
Lieutenant FOSTER, Royal Army Medical Corps [Lieutenant J.G. FOSTER]
Mr F.E. ANDREWS, Hospital Ship Nubia [Chief Officer Francis Edward ANDREWS]
Mr LAMBLE, Royal Navy
Mr F. HALLIDAY, Hospital Ship Nubia
Private ADAMS, 1st Bn. Seaforth Highlanders
Mr A.D. YOUNG, Hospital Ship Nubia
Able Seaman GOY, H.M.S. Monarch
Private OWEN, Rifle Brigade
Private FINNEY, 7th Dragoon Guards [5633 Private Walter FINNEY]

Nursing Sister K. HODGKINS [Nursing Sister Catherine HODGKIN, Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service (Reserve)]
Corporal A.J. WELLS, 2nd Bn. Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry [5276 Corporal A. WELLS]


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A privately printed Christmas card, drawn by Joseph Pritchard of Dewsbury. The 1901 Census shows that the Pritchard family lived in West Park Street, Dewsbury. Their children were: Mervyn (aged 6), David (aged 4) & Nancy (aged 2). These are clearly the three children depicted on the card, the boat bearing the name of the youngest, Nancy. The head of the family, Joseph Pritchard, was a physician & surgeon. Interestingly he was born in the Cape.

"1899 XMAS / DEPARTURE OF THE TENTH DIVISION FOR SOUTH AFRICA / GREETINGS FROM THE PRITCHARDS, DEWSBURY". The central motif shows a small boat, named "NANCY", setting sail with three children on board. The youngest child carries a flag emblazoned with the words "PEACE & GOODWILL TOWARDS MEN". Initialled bottom right: "JJGP".



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At the time of the Sunday 19th June 1921 Census the family were still living in West Park Street. 26 year old Mervyn was now a "Farm Student" and 22 year old Nancy a "School Mistress". David does not appear on the census return but Nancy has a younger sister, 17 year old Catherine who is a part time secretary to their father. I think Mervyn & Nancy were just weekend visitors as Mervyn was based on a farm near York and Nancy was teaching at a school in Alderley Edge.

Find A Grave tells us why David did not appear on the 1921 Census:

Born on the 28th February 1897 in Dewsbury and baptised on the 12th Apr 1897, David was the son of Joseph James Gawter Pritchard and Edith Voss Pritchard (nee Mackain), of "Heathfield", Dewsbury, Yorkshire. His father, a South African, was a physician and surgeon who had a medical practice in Dewsbury. David was the second of their six children. In 1901 & 1911 the Census records the family living at 3, West Park Street in Dewsbury.

David was educated at Wheelwright Grammar school until in 1910, David and his older brother Mervyn commenced education at Bradford Grammar School. Both boys played for the rugby XV and the cricket XI. The school magazine described them as 'both boys of the right sort, always willing to undertake any duty when asked and then to do their best.'

David left school in 1914 and joined the South African Mounted Rifles. When war broke out he served with them in the German South West Africa Campaign. Gaining a place as an Officer Cadet at Sandhurst, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in April 1915 and attached to the 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers. The regiment had lost a lot of officers and David was sent out as a replacement in early October. In late November Captain Robert Graves, Second Lt. Siegfried Sassoon and 2nd Lieutenant David Cuthbert Thomas followed. For a few months these four men served closely together. The next couple of months were spent training in preparation for the Somme Offensive. David played rugby with Robert Graves and David Thomas in inter- battalion matches.

In February 1916 the Battalion moved to Fricourt. Here they came under German trench mortar fire. David was put in command of the two Stokes trench mortars.

Lt Adams wrote later that "he did not volunteer for the Stokes gun, in fact he was very sorry to take up that work, but characteristically put his full energy into it and for six weeks fired it well and with extreme courage. He must have done great damage to the Germans, for they were always trying to put his gun out.'

In his 1929 book, the poet Robert Graves recalls a conversation he had with David. He told Robert Graves "They're beauties, I've been trying them out, and tomorrow I'm going to get some of my own back. I can put four or five shells in the air at once."

In early March, David was wounded in the face by a fragment from a shrapnel shell which burst in the trench where he was in charge of the mortar. At first it was thought he was seriously hurt and he was given leave to return home. It was subsequently found to be not that serious and David was returned to duty the week before he was killed.

On the night of 18th March, Robert Graves and David Thomas were working in the front line when the latter was shot in the neck. Captain Richardson was hit by a shell-blast when inspecting the wire. Both died of their wounds around midnight.

Lt Adams wrote 'I was with your son and he was anxious to give the Boches [i.e. the Germans] some back. We waited till after midnight [19th March]… Your son fired over forty shells, found six more and promptly sent them over.'

However, as he came off duty David Pritchard was killed by a random German 'whizz-bang', a high velocity shell. The next night, the three officers were buried side by side.

The Chaplain wrote, 'in the darkness I took the service. All the officers were present and many men. The moon came out and ... made the colours of the Union Jack which lay on the bodies gleam. The service ended to the roar of another explosion, more fitting accompaniment than any organ.'

Bradford Grammar School's 'Bradfordian' recorded:
Pritchard's 'loss is deeply regretted by many of his masters, who appreciated his public school spirit and his affectionate nature, and by many schoolfellows, among whom he was a general favourite.'

Lieutenant Adams wrote 'We all loved him. He was always good friends with everybody and always cheerful.' The Chaplain added, 'Your son had the reputation of being the most recklessly gallant of a gallant band of young officers and all loved him.'

Joseph Pritchard wrote of his son, 'David was just an ordinary boy. He was afraid of the dark. He disliked to get hurt …you will see what an ordinary boy can do if he sets himself to do it, and what one ordinary boy can do any ordinary boy can do.'

Both Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon attended the funeral.

Referring to 2nd Lt David Thomas with whom he was great friends, Siegfried Sassoon wrote in his diary:
'March 19th: And tonight I saw his shrouded form laid in the earth with his two companions (young Pritchard was killed this evening also). In the half clouded moonlight the parson stood above the graves, and everything was dim but the striped flag laid across them… once we could not hear the solemn words for the noise of a machine gun along the line; and when all was finished a canister fell a few hundred yards away to burst with a crash.'

The book 'Goodbye to all that' by Robert Graves also refers to David Pritchard & David Thomas.

The three officers are buried side by side in Point 110 New Military Cemetery, Fricourt.

David's father, Joseph Pritchard volunteered in 1915 and served as a doctor with the RAMC. His older brother Mervyn returned from South Africa in 1915 and was commissioned in the Royal Artillery. Both survived the War.

(Sources: CWGC, Ancestry, Find My Past, Bradford Grammar School (N. Hooper) Battalion War Diary, National Archives, Newspaper Archives)

Here are photos of him in uniform and his headstone.



RIP David.

Also visit: www.bradfordgrammar.com/wp-content/uploa...hard-19-March-16.pdf