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Pte. Henry Prescott
British Army South Lancashire Regiment
from:Maghull
My grandfather was Henry Prescott. I believe that he served in the British Army in India until around 1908 - he believed that he witnessed the last public flogging in the British Army. He returned to his home town of Maghull in Lancashire (now Merseyside) working as a cellar man in the Punch Bowl pub in Sefton.
He re-joined the army for the Great War in the South Lancashire Regiment. He was injured in the Balkans and shipped off in a hospital ship. This was damaged or sunk and he was picked up and taken to Malta (by the Japanese Navy?). Upon recovery he was sent to France where he was again wounded (family legend is that he was blown up when using the latrine) and was sent to Scotland for recovery. My understanding is that he was part of a machine gun team. In Scotland, he met a young nurse, Minnie Thomas who he married, she became my grandmother. He settled in Melling working as a farm labourer on Glovers Farm and living in a tied cottage. He had 2 sons and 2 daughters.
WW2 was not totally uneventful for Henry as he also served in the local Home Guard and the cottage that the family lived in was hit by a German Bomb which failed to explode. He retired at the age of 75 in 1959, passing away at the age of 84 in 1968. He was laid to rest in the grave yard at St Thomas's church in Melling.
