Name
Alban Preedy
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/07/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Devonshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 1 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Saviour's Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
He was the son of the Revd. Canon Arthur Preedy and Beatrice J. Preedy of Saltash in Cornwall.
Wartime Service
He was in the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment which was part of the 23rd Brigade in the 8th Division of III Corps in the 4th Army. He was killed in action.
The part of the infamous Somme attack on the 1st July 1916 given to the 2nd Devons was at Ovillers Spur advancing along Mash Valley towards Pozieres. The Battalion came under heavy fire and many men perished on wire, which had not been cut despite a heavy preliminary barrage. Onlookers thought that the leading waves were lying in No Man's Land waiting to move forward. Later it was realised that the men were nearly all casualties. 431 of the Devons were casualties that day out of approximately 800 men.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier/Face 1C of the great Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in France.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
