239930 Pte. William Pritchard Austalian Imperial Force 4th Btn. from:Hackney, London (d.6th Aug 1915) When I was growing up I always knew that my paternal grandfather, William Pritchard, had died in the First World War; my father was completely unapproachable about the subject.
The years went by, my father died in 1983; my life continued as lives do, but sometimes I would ask myself, who was my grandfather? I knew his name, William Pritchard the same name as my father, but that was it, just a name.
Then along came the Internet and with it the ability to search the First World War records, so off I started my research. First I tried the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour website. There were lots of Pritchards, but none killed on the Somme. There was one killed at Gallipoli, but the next of kin was wrong, I was looking for my grandmother Ada Pritchard. Many long nights followed, coffee made by my husband Steve left to go cold, and then I would give up for a few months. When I looked at my father's family tree, it was just my father and my grandmother and his half sisters. His mother (my grandmother) had remarried in the 1930s but there was no father for my father, and then I would start searching again. I would sit down at my computer and say, " ... right granddad tonight I am going to find you" then, nothing.
The search went on in this way for five years. I emailed the Australian authorities but they said they had no record of the pension. I even started to wonder did this man ever exist, but he had to have existed. Talking to the family, no one knew anything, my three aunts in Australia knew nothing. However, I never gave up hope of finding him. I tried birth records, but there was the problem of trying to find someone with the name of William Pritchard when you are not quite sure when or where they were born, and there were a great many people with the same name. I also looked for the record of his marriage to my grandmother, but found nothing. I was actually starting to feel quite down, but always in the back of my head was the War Pension from Australia, so they had to be married.
Then one night I was sitting there staring at the census records yet again, and I realised that I was looking at things the wrong way round. I should be looking for my grandmother marrying my grandfather, and 'bingo' the first search came up with the record of their marriage. Overjoyed, I immediately sent away for the marriage certificate and waited, it seemed to take ages to arrive! The marriage certificate arrived and I found out that my great grandfather was called James and where he lived. If I said it once I must have said it a hundred times that night to my husband "... did you know that my great grandfather was called James" - he would just smile and nod.
I was getting so frustrated. I emailed everyone on a website who had a William Pritchard born in London, hoping that although I may not have the full story, perhaps they might have further information. Most people responded, but of course it was all negative. But I had the wedding certificate and knew who my great grandfather was, so I started emailing everyone again, and that is when I got the reply back saying yes it looks like we are related. I explained to her about my grandfather but she did not have any information either but she said she would try and help me as I had made her curious, but I needed my grandfather's birth certificate. I got that and yes, I had finally found part of my grandfather's family. So in the space of 2/3 weeks I knew the names of my great grandfather and my great grandmother, I knew where my grandparents had married, I knew where they both lived before they were married, and from this relation I found all of the names of my grandfather's brothers and sister. My father's side of the tree was now getting full, but there was still the question of grandfather's death in the First World War.
Late that day the family member that I had found emailed with a link to the Australian Service records and said look at page 10. When I did I found the next of kin James Pritchard crossed out and in red ink Ada Pritchard added. I then went through the documents that she had found on line for me and on page 25, there it was, Widow Ada Pritchard, dependent William Joseph Pritchard (my father). It even told me how much pension they received, which was £1 every other week for my father and £2 every other week for my grandmother. So why did she tell my Mother that my grandfather was killed at the Somme? I just sat looking at the screen - it had been there all the time, but of course how was I to know. I must be honest, I cried, really cried tears of joy. I had done it, I had found him.
He was born in Brick Lane, London in 1890. He was 25 years old when he joined the 4th Battalion, A.I.F (yes this was the Battalion that went on the rampage in Cairo!) and served in D Company. He enlisted at Liverpool Camp, New South Wales on 6th November 1914 and left Sydney on the HMAT Seang Bee for Egypt, as a 2nd Reinforcement, on 11th February 1915. This was the day before my father's first birthday. He left Alexandria on 5th April 1915 on T.S.S. Lake Michigan for Gallipoli. He was killed between 6th and 9th August 1915 during the attack on Lone Pine, and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial. There was a Court of Enquiry at a place called Fleurbaix, France, which confirmed his death in action but when I asked the Australian Government if they had the papers, they said unfortunately they have no other papers on my grandfather.
It is unclear whether my grandfather travelled to Australia to enlist certainly I was told this by my mother... he joined the Australian Army because they paid better than the British Army, and if he was killed, then my grandmother also got a better pension" - and one must remember that £6 a month in 1915/16 was a lot of money in those days. However, he could have gone to Australia in 1914 to seek a new life and employment on the land, but the war upset his plans. My feeling is that he intended that my grandmother and my father would settle in Australia with him. I suppose the thought of a bright new future in Australia was very appealing. The family row, oh well that was because his father - James Pritchard wanted some of the pension money! It is unclear why my grandfather put his father, James, down as next of kin on the Attestation Form. Perhaps he did so in case the Australian Army would not take married men from England. But that is something else for me to look up.
My grandfather's death in the period 6th to 9th August occurred when the 4th Bn. of the 1st Australian Division were engaged in bitter fighting at Lone Pine - an action in which seven VCs were awarded. The attack is well chronicled, C E W Bean devotes no less than 40 pages to it in The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. He records that the attack began at 5.30pm on 6th August, on a narrow front with the first troops filing into tunnels, which extended some fifty yards beyond the front line. The attacking troops reached the Turkish front line but found it roofed over with heavy logs, which the Australians tried to remove while others went further forward and then worked their way back along the communication trenches. Much of the fighting took place in semi-darkness with attacks and counter-attacks that lasted until 9th August.
Another author, Alan Moorhead, comments in his book Gallipoli, "... it is really not possible to comprehend what happened. All dissolves into a confused impression of a riot, of a vicious street fight in the back alleys of a city, and the metaphor of the stirred-up ant heap persists ..."
What we do know is that 1st Australian Division lost over 2,000 men during the battle. The 4th Battalion, in which my grandfather served, went in with 20 officers and 722 other ranks and suffered the loss of 15 officers and 459 other ranks killed wounded or missing (63% of those engaged).
After years of wondering and searching I now have answers to my questions.
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