The Boer War and Great War group of four to Captain A.L. Prince, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, late Manchester Regiment, killed in action in 1914

QUEEN'S SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Lieut., Manch. Regt.); 1914 MONS STAR (Capt., L.N. Lan. R.); BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (Capt.) mounted court style for display, very fine (4)

Ex. Harry Usher Collection.

Captain Alick Lancelot Prince was officially reported 'killed' in action on 8 November 1914; but a subsequent Casualty List shows him as having been reported 'not killed but missing,' and a still later Casualty List, on 7 June 1915, shows him as having been 'unofficially reported killed,' He was the sixth son of the late T.T. Prince, of Laurel Lodge, Barnet, and of Mrs. Prince, 44 Grange Road, Ealing, was born on the 12 September 1878, and was educated at Malvern College, and Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1899. He received his commission in the Manchester Regiment in May 1901, becoming Lieutenant in the following December. He took part in the South African War, in which he was slightly wounded, being present at operations in the Transvaal, in 1901-02, receiving the Queen's medal with three claps. In February 1908 he was transferred to the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and from April 1910 to May 1913 was employed with the Malay States Guides, being promoted Captain in September 1912. He rejoined the 1st Battalion of his Regiment shortly before war broke out, and for his services was mentioned in Sir John French's Despatch of the 30th November 1915.

As regards the Officer's death, enquiries through the Red Cross showed that Private Mulholland of the Battalion informed a R.C. representative that he saw Captain Prince shot in the head some time in the first or second week in November, and the Private, who was in Captain Prince's Company, is certain the Officer is dead, and thinks he was buried at a place he called Linden Forest near Ypres, which may be Lindenhoek, close to Kemmel. A Corporal of the Battalion also wrote most circumstantially that he was next to the Captain and saw him shot in the head, and that he saw him lying dead twenty hours after, but too near the German lines to be reached. A Major of his Battalion writing in December 1914, said that from enquiries he had made he feared it was true that Captain Prince was killed. Captain Prince married Emma Caroline, daughter of William Beadell Bacon, Tunbridge Wells, and left two sons, Harold, born in November 1911, and Ralph Bacon, born in February 1914. (Ref Bond of Sacrifice)