Name
Sydney Pratt
29 August 1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/07/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
20702
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DANTZIG ALLEY BRITISH CEMETERY, MAMETZ
III. D. 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
UNTIL WE MEET R.I.P.
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, Not on the Leverstock Green memorials
Pre War
Sydney Pratt was born on 29 August 1897 in Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead, the son of Frank and Emma Pratt, and baptised there on 24 October 1897. He was one of 6 children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 15 Astley Road, Hemel Hempstead where his father was working as a Grocer's Carman (delivery driver). By 1911 they had moved to 43 Astley Road and Sydney, then aged 13, had left school and was working in the printing trade.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war, Sidney was not old enough to enlist, but he managed to enlist in May 1915 at Hemel Hempstead when he was only seventeen, and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, being posted to the 7th Battalion and sent to Salisbury Plain for basic training.
He was sent to France in early 1916, joining the Battalion in Fricourt, east of Albert. He saw action in the trenches and then took part in the Battle of Albert.
The 7th Battalion were ordered to attack the German front lines and support trenches and on to the Pommiers Redoubt. The objective was achieved but they sustained many casualties. Six men were recorded as 'missing' and one of them was Sydney. He was later reported as 'Killed in Action' on 1 July 1916.
The local newspaper reported that a letter had been received by his parents which came from RSM Stuart Davenport of the 2nd Border Regiment, dated 18 July informing them that "some of my regiment found your son's body and buried it." "He was killed on 1.7.16, in the great advance, and is buried on the north side and near the centre of Mametz and Montauban road." Another soldier from the Border Regiment also wrote to them, telling them that "We found him and buried him in quite a nice place with name, number, and regiment marked on a cross we made."
Sydney was only 18 years old when he died and is buried in Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £4 and pay owing of £5 1s 10d. His mother received a pension of 5 shillings a week and while living at 43 Astley Road, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. ordered his headstone inscription: "UNTIL WE MEET R.I.P.". His cousin Harry Sear served in the war, with the Machine Gun Corps and died in 1918.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelheroes.com., www.hemelatwar.org.
