Name
Sidney Richard Pratt
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/07/1916
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2641
Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
53rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
V.C. CORNER AUSTRALIAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL, FROMELLES
9
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring
Pre War
Sidney Richard Pratt was born in Marsworth, Bucks in 1886 to Thomas Pratt, farmer, and Anne (nee Hall).
On the 1891 Census the family of parents, Kathleen (born 1872), Constance (born 1874), Annie M (born 1875), George (born 1877), John (born 1879), Minnie (born 1880), Thomas (born 1882) Hugh (born 1888), Sidney and Jane (born 1889) were living at Great Farm, Marsworth.
Sidney’s father died in 1898.
On the 1901 Census the family with Anne was named as a farmer, Kathleen, Constance, George (farmer’s son), Thomas (miller’s clerk), Sidney Kane and Dorothy (born 1894) were still living at Great Farm.
Sidney left Liverpool for Sydney, Australia on 9 Jan 1913.
Wartime Service
He attested for the Australian Army on 24 Jun 1915 as Private 2641 in the Australian Imperial Force giving his address as c/o Mr Breadsall, Chapel Street, Bankstown, N.S.W. and by Oct 1915 was in Egypt embarking on 18 Oct for Gallipoli to join 1st Battalion. In Dec 15 the troops were evacuated back to Egypt and on 13 Feb 1916 Sidney was transferred to 53rd Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir. In Apr 1916 he had Scarlet Fever and returned to his Unit on 25 May 1916. On 19 Jun his division embarked in Alexandria arriving in Marseilles on 25 Jun to be deployed to the Somme area.53rd Battalion were part of 14th Australian Brigade, 5th Australian Division and were among many Australian troops ordered to make a diversionary attack at Fromelles to assist the Battles of the Somme. The attack was unsuccessful causing many casualties among whom Sidney was initially reported as Missing and only declared killed in action following a Court of Inquiry conducted on 2 Sep 1916 by his CO. His remains were not recovered and he is remembered on the Fromelles Memorial.
From the Bucks Herald 7th October 1916: “An official intimation has been received by Mrs. T. Pratt, of Longfield-road, Tring, that her youngest son, Pts. Sidney R. Pratt, No. 2641, of the Australian Infantry, serving in France, has been reported missing since July 19. No satisfactory information of his movements has been received.”
From the Bucks Herald 27th September 1917: “An intimation has been received by Mrs. Thomas Pratt, late of Great Farm, Marsworth, and now residing in Longfield-road, Tring, from the Australian headquarters that her son, Pte. Sidney Pratt has been missing since July 19, 1916, and after a court of enquiry it was found reasonable to assume that he had been killed in action in France on that date, all enquiries having proved fruitless.
Pte. Pratt was the youngest son of the late Mr. Thomas Pratt of Marsworth, and his calling was that of a butcher. He at one time managed a business at High Wycombe for Mr. Evans, of Tring. He left England for Australia in January, 1913, joined the Australian Forces in July, 1915, and was sent to Egypt in October, and from there to Gallipoli in November, where he had a narrow escape and suffered severely from shell shock. Sent back to Egypt after the evacuation in December, he was drafted to France in June 1916.
Mrs. Pratt has been the recipient of a message of condolence from the King and Queen, besides many enquiries and messages of sympathy from fiends who knew Pte. Pratt when in England. Mrs. Pratt has two other sons still serving the Kind. Corpl. Tom Pratt, who is slowly recovering from severe wounds in hospital in England, and Pte. Hugh Pratt who is at a base in France doing light duties as a result of being frostbitten last winter.”
Additional Information
Brother Hugh Pratt served with as Private 4132 with Essex Regt and also as Private 445955 Labour Corps. Brother Thomas also served as Corporal but no Service details were found.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
