Scott Noel Prior

Born: 1898

Died: 25 May 1918

Rank and Regiment: Private G/17009 in the 13th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment

Resting Place: St. Andrew’s, Westfield, United Kingdom

Scott was born in Tittleshall in 1898 to parents Robert James and Mary Ann Prior (nee Horner). He was baptised in the village on 6th November 1898.

In 1901, the family are recorded as living at Tittleshall and Robert is working as a gamekeeper. By 1911, they moved to Great Dunham and Robert is described as a farmer, working on his own account and indeed employing others. On the census they are described as having 8 living children named Laura, Herbert, Mabel, Hinton, Stanley, Cecil, Scott and one other daughter whose name is illegible.

Following his enlistment, Scott joined the 13th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. The regiment fought at the First Battles of the Somme and at the Battle of Lys in France. It is possible that this is where Scott sustained the life-altering injuries which eventually ended his life. Following this, he was sent home to recover and died months later on 25th May 1918 in Whitstable, Kent. He is buried in Westfield (St. Andrew) Churchyard.

Although few of his military records survive we may safely conclude on the basis of Stanley’s enlistment papers that the family were living in Westfield when he enlisted and certainly at the time of his death.

His effects amounting to £13 17s 4d were paid to his father; a subsequent War Gratuity of £5 was paid to his mother. Robert died in 1919, probably before payment of the gratuity. Although Mary eventually died in Yaxham, where she is buried, she was still living in Westfield at the time of the 1939 Register.

Scott’s elder brother Hinton was a corporal in the Machine Gun Corps, having enlisted in 1911. He survived the War although discharged from the Army in 1919 due to sickness. He died in 1972.

Stanley Prior, born in 1894, enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment on 1 September 1914. His enlistment papers survive and are striking; not only did he stand but 5 ft 3 in tall, he weighed a mere 98 lb – 7 stone. His address is given as “West Field (sic), East Dereham”. Stanley had a couple of minor brushes with authority when he overstayed his leave by a short time, being confined to barracks on one occasion and docked three days’ pay on the other, and he was hospitalised with malaria, but otherwise his war service appears to have been fairly uneventful and he, too, survived the War, living to 1976.

Cecil Prior, born in 1896, was a private in the Norfolk Regiment and latterly the Labour Corps. He died in 1971.