Name
Edmund Nicholas Prideaux-Brune
8 October 1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/05/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Rifle Brigade
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VILLERS STATION CEMETERY, VILLERS-AU-BOIS
XII. B. 16.
France
Headstone Inscription
WITH LONG LIFE WILL I SATISFY HIM AND SHEW HIM MY SALVATION
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Welwyn memorials, Individual Plaque, St Petroc Church, Padstow, Padstow War Memorial, Cornwall, Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford
Pre War
Edmund Nicholas Prideaux-Brune, was born on 8 October 1898 in Welwyn, the son of Colonel Charles Robert Prideaux-Brune and The Hon. Mrs. Katharine Cecilia Prideaux-Brune (nee Knatchbull), and one of five children. He was baptised on 20 November 1898 at St Mary's, Welwyn.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at The Grange, Welwyn with six servants. His father's occupation was given as retired Army Colonel.
He was educated at St Aubyns School, Rottingdean, Gresham's School, Holt, and at the Royal College of Mines, Camberley. He was due to start studies at Christchurch College, Oxford when war broke out.
He was Page of Honour to Major, the Earl of Liverpool at the Coronation of of King George V and received the Coronation Medal. He was also said to have considerable musical talent and wrote several compositions for the piano.
The family later lived at Prideaux Place, Padstow, Cornwall.
Wartime Service
Edmund was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant to the same regiment in which his father had served, The Prince Consort's Own (Rifle Brigade) Regiment, on 21 December 1917 and after training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he served with the Expeditionary Force in France from 19 April 1918 and joined the 3rd Battalion.
Edmund had been with the Battalion barely a month when he was killed along with five other officers when they were bombed by a German aircraft near Lens in northern France on 22 May 1918. They were killed instantly and are buried side by side at Villers Station Cemetery, Villers-au-Bois, France.
Additional Information
His eldest brother Fulke was severely injured in March 1918 and taken prisoner. He was released in October and lived quietly until his death in 1939, aged 42.
His brother Denys also served in France and was awarded the DSO twice. His sisters Winifred, Eva and Sybil nursed the injured in England and France.
His father received a war gratuity of £35 and pay owing of £7 5s 6d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Derry Warners
Jonty Wild, www.padstowmuseum.co.uk
