War Memorial Hall c1929
Anthony Leslie PRYDE
Anthony Pryde was born on 28 October 1888 in Brighton, Victoria. His parents were Anthony Lowes and Fanny Susanna (née Williams) Pryde. He attended Scotch from 1903 to 1905. He was in the Scotch College Cadets (for 5 years according to his enlistment papers).
Anthony was a bank clerk when he enlisted on 21 November 1916 in Sydney, New South Wales. He served in the 18th Battalion with the rank of Private. His Regimental Number was 1806.
Anthony died on 2 October 1917 near Ypres, Belgium. He was 28 years of age.
Service record
Anthony was initially allocated to reinforcements to a Light Trench Mortar Battery. He sailed for England on 2 December 1916, just 11 days after enlisting. After arriving at Plymouth in mid-February 1917, he was transferred to the 18th Light Mortar Battery on 1 April. In May he became a Temporary Corporal.
He was sent to a Trench Mortar School in Lyndhurst a few days later. Perhaps he was unhappy with this work, for on 21 August he became a reinforcement to the 1st Infantry Battalion, losing his temporary rank as he did so. On 30 August he sailed from Southampton for France, where he joined the 1st Battalion on 11 September. He had less than a month to live.
On 2 October 1917 he was detached from the battalion to the 1st Light Trench Mortar Battery. That day he was reported missing in action. A Court of Inquiry held in March 1918 determined that Anthony had been killed in action on 2 October. He left a wife, to whom he had written on the day of his death, and two sons, who later attended Scotch.
His obituary in The Scotch Collegian asserts that he ‘was intensely proud of being an Old Boy of the College, and was delighted to meet so many of his former schoolmates when in camp in England, and in the line in France.’
Anthony Pryde has no known grave but is commemorated at the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), Belgium.
Sources:
- Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour
- Mishura Scotch Database
- National Archives of Australia – B2455, PRYDE ANTHONY LESLIE
- Scotch Collegian 1918
- The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=246797
