Pte 57658 Harry Prust

At the time of the 1901 Census Ada aged 25, is living with her mother Sarah who is 60 and living on her own means. Ada is working as a domestic servant. Harry is 6 years old. Ada is recorded as single. Their address is 4 Durham Cottages, Scarborough. 

The family are living at the same address at the time of the 1911 Census. Harry is still living with his mother and grandmother, he also has a sister Amy Jane aged 5. Harry is working as a butchers apprentice, the same trade as his late grandfather Simeon Prust. Ada is listed again as single. 

Another daughter, Sarah, was born on 05th February 1913.

 

The family experienced the bombardment of Scarborough by German naval ships on 16th December 1914.  At 08:00, Derfflinger and Von der Tann began to bombard the town, and more than 500 high explosive shells fell in about 20 minutes, inflicting damage on shops, houses, hotels, churches, schools and hospitals.  Civilians crowded into the railway station and the roads leading out of the town.  At 09:30, the two battlecruisers ceased fire and moved on to nearby Whitby (Hartlepool was also bombarded). Seventeen people were killed in Scarborough that morning, with two others dying later of their wounds, and more than 80 were seriously wounded. (Altogether 86 civilians and 7 soldiers were killed, and over 400 wounded.)

The raid resulted in public outrage in Britain and Remember Scarborough became a rallying cry for recruiting officers across the nation. The attack featured ona  range of recruitment posters which prompted men to enlist in large numbers.

 

In early 1915 (or late 1914) his mother remarried to a cousin, David Prust. He was much older, born in 1855, had married in 1877 and been widowed in 1914. Records show that he was a butcher/shopkeeper, and filed bankruptcy in 1910, addresses 2 St. Mary’s Terrace and 139 Castle Road.  They had a daughter, Millicent, born on 04th April 1917.

 

At some point Harry left Scarborough, the reason for his moving not known. SDGW gives his residence before enlisting as Rothwell Haigh, southeast of Leeds. He enlisted in Dewsbury, 8 miles southwest of Rothwell joining the Army Cyclist Corps as Private 79. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he volunteered in about September 1915.

He was subsequently transferred to the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 57658.

Harry was killed in action on the 09th April 1917, aged 22. This was the opening day of the Battle of Arras.

Arras 09^th April 1917

Details of the circumstances the 18^th Battalion had to contend with are illustrated below:

The battalion formed the left assaulting battalion of the brigade, the 2^nd Wiltshire Regiment being on the right, the 19^th Manchester Regiment being in support and 2^nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment furnishing “moppers -up”  for the two assaulting battalions. The brigade advance was timed to begin at ---- hour after “Zero”, suited to conform with the movements of 56^th Division and other divisions on our left further north (near Arras). This battalion’s objective was the front-line system Lion Lane on the left (exclusive) to Panther Lane on right (exclusive). This sector included the strongpoint known as “The Egg”.

The brigade advanced at prearranged time, i.e., 11.38 a.m, from position of assembly trenches south of Neuville Vitasse to German front line. This necessitated an advance across the open of at least 2,000 yards. This area up to Neuville Vitasse- Henin road was crossed in artillery formation; after this, owing to machine-gun fire and considerable resistance from German posts forward in the sunken roads, it was found necessary to deploy. During the whole movement across the open the advancing columns had been under considerable artillery fire from guns of all calibres. On gaining the position immediately in front of German line it was found that the wire was practically uncut; this wire formed two strong belts in front of German trenches. Two small gaps were eventually discovered and Second-Lieut H.F.Merry gallantly led a bombing party through them, but his three remaining men were killed as they reached the German trenches.

From the moment the battalion was “held up” in front of German wire Capt. R. W. Jones, the senior company commander on the spot, at once began the work of consolidating in front of German wire. The battalion held on in this position for the remainder of the day, until relieved by the 16^th Manchester Regiment about 3 a.m. on the 10^th of April, all the time under intense machine-gun and rifle fire.

Between 9th-10th April, 1917, the 18th King's lost 2 officers 2nd Lt. F. Ashcroft and 2nd Lt. H.G. Ewing and 59 other ranks killed. 8 other officers were wounded. 

Harry was buried close to where he fell and after the war, when graves were concentrated, his body was removed and reinterred  and he now rests at Wancourt British Cemetery in France at plot VI.G.11 where his headstone bears the epitaph:

 

Wancourt was captured on 12 April 1917 after very heavy fighting and the advance was continued on the following days. The cemetery, called at first Cojeul Valley Cemetery, or River Road Cemetery, was opened about ten days later; it was used until October 1918, but was in German hands from March 1918 until 26 August, when the Canadian Corps recaptured Wancourt. At the Armistice, the cemetery contained 410 graves, but was very greatly increased in the following years when graves were brought in from other small cemeteries and isolated positions on the battlefields south-east of Arras including HENIN NORTH CEMETERY, HENIN-SUR-COJEUL, about 800 metres North of the village, contained the graves of 29 British soldiers who fell on 9 April 1917, almost all of whom belonged to the 2nd Wilts or the 18th King's Liverpools. The cemetery now contains 1,936 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 829 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 76 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to 20 who were buried in Signal Trench Cemetery whose graves were destroyed in later battles. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

 

The CWGC Graves Rgistration form gives his date of death as 14th April 1917, later amended to the 9th.

Harry is commemorated on the Memorials at

Robin Hood and Rothwell Haigh in West Yorkshire

Scarborough War Memorial as H Prost

 

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £6-10s went to his mother Ada. No pension card has been found, suggesting that Harry lived independently before enlisting.

 

His mother took in boarders and advertised frequently in the Yorkshire newspapers.  Notices in 1918 list rooms with Mrs. A. Prust, 2 St. Mary’s Terrace, with a “full sea view”, at Louvain Boarding House (no doubt named after the Belgian city heavily damaged during the German invasion in 1914, killing 300 civilians and destroying the library, events which shocked the world).  By 1923 she was advertising rooms at 139 Castle Road, and by 1932 she had moved to 40 Trafalgar Square, renting out apartments/rooms “2 mins from the sea”.

 

David Prust died in 1933 aged 78.

 

In 1939 his widowed mother Ada, 64, is still at 40 Trafalgar Square, with daughters Sarah, 26, and Millicent, 22, a shop assistant.  All three daughters married men called Carter, their relationship, if any, unknown.  Amy Jane had married in 1931, Millicent married in 1953 and Sarah in 1955.

 

His mother died in 1951, aged 75, still living at 40 Trafalgar Square, probate to William Carter, husband of Amy Jane in the amount of £3,300-18s-8d.

We currently have no further information on Harry Prust, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.