Gilbert Maurice Pritchard
Memorial: Thornbury - St Mary's Church
Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment
Medals: 1914 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Private 7761
Parents: Henry and Sarah Pritchard
Marital status: Married
Home address: Crossways, Thornbury, Bristol
Pre-war occupation: Builder’s plasterer / Army Reserve
Date of birth: 1888
Place of birth: Thornbury, Bristol
Date of death: 02/11/1914
Buried/Commemorated at: Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (PAenl 22 and 34.); Thornbury United Reformed Church Memorial Tablet
Age: 26
Further information:
Bronze Tablet and Wooden Memorial Board.
Gilbert Maurice Pritchard was born in Thornbury, his birth being registered in the June quarter of 1888. He was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 1st July. His father Henry was a painter and house decorator. Gilbert had six brothers and sisters. Over the years the family lived at various places in Thornbury but by 1911 their home was at Crossways. Henry was working for a builder as a tiler and plasterer.
In March 1908 he married Florence Jessie Scott in the West Ham area of London. At the time of the 1911 census the couple were living at Leytonstone, London. They had three children, Olive aged 2, Edward aged 1 and Constance aged 3 months. Gilbert was employed as a builder’s plasterer but was probably in the Army Reserve.
At the outbreak of war he joined 1st Battalion, Glosters, 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which landed in France on 13th August 1914. They were in action at the Battle of Mons and the Retreat, and at the Battles of The Marne and Aisne.
On 21st October, during the opening engagement of the First Battle of Ypres, known as the Battle of Langemarck, 1st Glosters were defending a salient around the village of Langemarck, about 5 miles north of Ypres. On 29th October the enemy emerged from the early morning mist and attacked the Guards Battalions in the front-line at nearby Gheluvelt, causing heavy casualties. A counter-attack by 1st Battalion, Glosters broke down into a series of disconnected company actions in which D Company advanced to within a few hundred yards of the original front line, where they helped rally the remaining Guards but found themselves isolated, facing enemy both to the north and east. The Battalion lost 7 officers and 160 other ranks before the survivors were able to retire with the support of other units from 3rd Brigade.
As the battle continued the Glosters were repeatedly called on to undertake costly counter-attacks. On 31st October and 2nd November they were again in action around Gheluvelt, sustaining further heavy losses. Gilbert was killed in action on the 2nd November, in the same area as his comrade Harry Heather Burrows who had been killed just a few days before. Harry is also named on the Thornbury Memorial.
Gilbert has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate. This is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. The site of the gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way the battlefields. The memorial bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. Since 1927 (apart from WW2) the last post has been sounded here every evening.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Thornbury Roots Website. Thornbury and District Museum Research Group. Forces War Records and the CWGC