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Prentice-J-M-Pte-1770

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 5 years, 11 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

 

Prentice J M     Pte    1770    John Murdoch               23 Inf Bn    29    Clerk    Single    C of E       

Address:    Moonee Ponds, Tennyson St, 13   

Next of Kin:    Prentice, Maggie, Miss, sister, Neil St, Beaufort   

Enlisted:    20 May 1915       

Embarked:     A64 Demosthenes 16 Jul 1915   

Awards:  Belgian Croix de Guerre; Belgian Order de la Couronne - Chevalier, Mention in Dispatches

 

 

The friends of Mr. J. M. Prentice, of Moonee Ponds, will be pleased to learn that he is doing great work for the Empire. And his zeal for the cause he espoused has been rewarded by promotion fitting the responsibilities placed upon him. He enlisted in May, 1915, and went into camp quite ignorant of military life, its way and usages. Throwing his vast energy into the work that had called him forth from civilian pursuits, he soon won the approbation alike of comrades and officers. The free and easy manner in which he approached his superiors sometimes awed, and at others, amused his comrades; but he was soon recognised and marked out as a man for big work. The amount of correspondence that reached him during the early days of camp life at Broadmeadows gained for him the sobriquet of "Mail." During his first week in camp he made a mental survey of the organisation or lack of organisation - as it then existed. Coming home on his first weekend leave - French leave - he deeply deplored it, and a great wish possessed him to go in and put it on a better footing; but his time was not yet, little thinking that that was to be his work abroad. The last two months spent in the land of his nativity he was being "licked into shape as a soldier," growing in the affection of his comrades, and the esteem and confidence of his officers, who tactfully and unsuspectingly proved to themselves the value of this new recruit, whose talents were to be utilised in a way different to that for which he was training in the field. On 16th July, 1915, the 2nd reinforcements of the 23rd Btn. boarded the "Demosthenes" and bade farewell to Victoria. Alas! for some a long farewell.

 

With his characteristic unselfishness and thoughtfulness, Mr. Prentice - now L.-Corporal Prentice - provided a supply of medicine suitable for voyagers by sea; crossing the "Bight," this proved a valuable prescient, as heavy seas reduced many of our 2nd of the 23rd to a state of hors de combat. L. Corporal Prentice, who suffered only a mild attack, soon recovered, and moved about amongst his comrades, ministering to their wants and prescribing for them from his stock of medicine--neutralising agents to Neptune's "Hunnish gases." This new role earned for him a new title -Dr. Prentice - which adhered to him for the remainder of the voyage, and at an organised concert held on board he was "'billed" on the programme for an item - a shot story by Dr. Prentice. In the voyage he acted as assistant censor; and on reaching Egypt resumed military training with his company.

 

When the eventful day came that parted him from comrades he had learned to love, they were ordered to embark for Gallipoli Peninsula, and he was ordered to report at the A.I.F. headquarters, where he was given another stripe and assigned duties in the records section of the A.I.F. Here he soon found his footing and was promoted to sergeant. While in Cairo he and his office staff were sent to Alexandria to adjust a complicated situation that had arisen. The manner in which he disposed of it marked him for further promotion, and he was transferred to the A.I.F. headquarters, London, as NCO in charge of records. From this he speedily rose to the rank of warrant-officer on the staff of the Administrative Headquarters - a rank in which he will have an opportunity to use his genius in bigger work for the Empire. Three times in Egypt he begged to be permitted to go into the firing line, and once since reaching England, but was refused, his officer stating he could not be spared from the work he was engaged in. We are all proud to know how nobly our boys have sacrificed themselves in the hottest battle-front, and we are also proud that we have been able to send some who have a faculty for organising and administrative work. This will be more readily appreciated when it is known that Warrant-Officer Prentice has organised an office containing over 200 workers, whom he directs and controls. 

 

OUR SOLDIERS. (1916, August 24). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 4 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74593886

 

BEAUTY VIES WITH RUIN
POPPIES AS RED AS BLOOD
BLOOM IN BELGIAN FIELDS
MESSINES RIDGE PICTURED
Fields bright with poppies stretching away to the desolation of the front line

of trenches are described by J. M. Prentice, of the Australian Imperial Force,

in the course of a graphic, letter to Mr E. Williams, of Puckle street,
Moonee Ponds.


"Close to where I was today is a high hill, which overlooks the whole of the
Messines ridge," he writes. "Picture with me a long slope; with picturesque
woods and fields, bright with wild flowers In full bloom. You may know
a MacWhirter picture called 'June in the Tyrol Alps.' Well, the flowers here
are as plentiful and as lovely. The poppies are, perhaps, the most beauti-
ful. I saw a field red with them, so red that the rays of the setting sun
fairly blazed over it and dazzled the eyes. It was curiously suggestive of
blood! Then on the top of the hill a ruined shrine with a broken statue
of the Blessed Lady — and the shell holes on every side; finally, the sharp
slope leading down to our reserve lines and beyond, far away, the front
lines.


"At the foot of the hill is a little village which has suffered severely. The
spire of the church is a pathetic relic of a place of worship, and the convent
is a mass of ruins. Beyond the village is the Messines ridge, and it is al-
most impossible to describe It. Words fail to give any idea of it. Similes

suggest themselves — a ploughed field, a stricken land, a blighted country -

it is all these and more. Shattered trees with bared and broken stumps, shell
holes (which will soon be covered with poppies and glorious with young green
growth as the troops move forward), and a hideous suggestion of ruin on
every side.


Away on the right is the broken and battered village of Messines. Beyond,
swerving northwards, is the German line, and as I peer through my blnocu-
lars into the darkening east, I get the fitful flash of a big gun, seeing the
gleam several seconds before the sound reaches me. Then I see the shells strike
and the ploughed field of the front line is yet more torn.


"Nearer I see the flicking of a signal lamp, and further to the left a heavier
bombardment goes, on. Far out on the sky line is the town of Ypres (the

'Wipers' of Tommy's limited French), and then the eye lights on a heavy battery
of British guns. By the way I saw a gun disguised in a way that made one
of Heath Robinson's drawings models of sanity — but, of course, I must not say
anything.


"I spent nearly an hour on the top of that hill watching the spot where an
Australian Division so thoroughly justified itself, and proved yet again the
Anzac spirit. We were all very silent as we returned to our billet, walking
through the wood where exquisite beauty was marred by shell holes and
broken trees. The difference on the two sides of the hill was tremendous —
on one side war, ruin and death, on the other a smiling beauty that broke into
a wealth of flowers."

BEAUTY VIES WITH RUIN (1917, September 27). The Herald

(Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 11.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242486187

 

A cable message from Lieut. J. M. Prentice, who left Moonee Ponds for the front about 3½ years ago, states that he is embarking for Australia early this month, suffering from compound fracture of right arm, result of gunshot wound.

 

ROLL OF HONOR. (1918, October 10). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3 Edition: Morning. Retrieved August 28, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74607324

 

War Service Commemorated

Essendon Town Hall L-R

Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour With the Colours

Regimental Register

 

 

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