OLIVER PRENTICE
Images courtesy of David Gobbitt Flickr
image from 1918 Suffolk Chronical And Mercury newspaper
Born: 1880, Ipswich.
Died: 27th March 1918; age 38; KiA.
Residence: 10, Lower Brook Street, Ipswich.
Occupation: a Clerk – Ipswich Gas Company.
Oliver joined the Inns of Court O.T.C. in November 1915.
Rank: 2nd Lieutenant; Service Number: 7276
Regiment: London Regiment, 1st (City of London) Battalion, (Royal Fusiliers) attached 7th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, T.F.
Medals Awarded: Victory & British War.
Memorial Reference:
Panel 85 & 86,
Somme,
France.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Mrs. Prentice, of 351, Nacton Road, Ipswich & the late Oliver Prentice.
CENSUS
1881 St. Helen’s Street, Ipswich.
Oliver was a year old and living with his parents & infant sibling.
James Oliver Prentice, 31, a Corn Merchant’s Clerk, born Ipswich.
Louisa Jane Prentice (nee Trodd), 21, Born Ipswich.
unnamed infant (Harold Prentice), 1 month, born Ipswich.
1 general servant.
1 monthly nurse.
1891 9, Spring Road, Ipswich.
Oliver was 11 years old and living with his parents & siblings.
James, 41, a Corn Merchant’s Clerk.
Louisa, 31.
Harold, 10.
Mary Louisa Prentice, 7, born Ipswich.
Amy Olivia Prentice, 5, born Ipswich.
1901 93, Belle Vue Road, Ipswich.
Oliver was 21 years old, a Clerk – Gas Works. He was living with his parents & sisters.
James, 51, a Corn Merchant’s Clerk.
Mary, 17.
Amy, 15.
1911 268, Woodbridge Road, Ipswich.
Oliver was 31 years old, a Clerk – Gas Works. He was living with his parents & sister.
James, 61, a Secretary – Corn Trade & Malting Company.
Louisa, 51.
Mary, 27.
Oliver’s medals were sent to his mother on the 20th November 1922.
Soldiers’ Effects to James Oliver Prentice Esq. – father and Miss Amy Olivia Prentice – sister & Frank Prentice, a Gas Engineer.
Oliver is remembered on the war memorial at Northgate High School. Formerly Ipswich Grammar School for Boys.
Ipswich Gas Light Company.
PATERNAL GRANDFATHER
Oliver’s paternal grandfather, Oliver Prentice was born into the prominent Prentice family of Stowmarket, Suffolk in August 1820. The eldest child of William & Eliza Prentice, of Abbot’s Hall, a corn and timber merchant, farmer, malt brewer and highly respected and esteemed townsman.
In April 1850, Oliver Prentice opened a shop at No. 2, Corn Hill, where orders were taken for Hunwick Screened Coals at 16s. a ton, and for the sale of Flour, Corn, Malt, Hops, Seeds, Oil Cake, and Artificial Manures etc.
Oliver was a member of the Board of Guardians, being first elected in 1851. Politically Oliver was a Liberal; he served the town as a member of the Corporation, he was first returned to the Town Council in 1860 for St. Clement’s ward, in conjunction with Mr. William Mason. But contentions of political life had not the charm for him, so Oliver retired in 1866, after his second term when Mr. John Patteson Cobbold was nominated. He never after re-entered the Council.
The Prentice family were firm Nonconformist, and for many years Oliver was a deacon of the Independent church worshipping in St. Nicholas Street. When the St. Clement’s Congregational Chapel was erected, he and his family were drafted from the cause at St. Nicholas Street. Oliver greatly associated himself at St. Clement’s Congregational Chapel and soon filled the post of deacon.
On the 15th November 1849, Mr. Bailey established a Ragged School in Ipswich for the neglected and ragged children of the town. Oliver became an able administrator as well as a kind and estimable coadjutor, he lent his willing help in establishing a Ragged School Sunday School, for 2 hours in the evening. A pleasing feature of the Sunday school was that it’s teachers came from nearly all sections of the Church – Evangelical, Independents, Baptists, Quackers and Wesleyans and so on. On the 19th November 1870, the Ipswich Ragged Sunday School celebrated it’s 21st anniversary. Teachers and friends of the Ragged School presented Oliver with a handsome timepiece and a Birthday Scripture Text Book in recognition of his service which in no small measure contributed to the school’s success.
On the 1st September 1876, on the eve of his 56th birthday Oliver died at Hamilton House, Felixstowe. After the funeral service at the St. Clement’s Congregational Chapel, about 100 children from the Ragged School joined the procession down Fore Street, Orwell Street, St. Margaret’s Street, Woodbridge Road and Christchurch Street. The children had earlier had a short service at their school. As the mourners left the grave side, the children from the Ragged School sang a hymn, “Here we suffer grief and pain,” which formed a fitting conclusion.
In May 1877, much of Oliver’s business premises were sold by auction, by Mr. John Fox, at the Golden Lion Hotel, Ipswich – including freehold waterside mercantile premises, comprising of two newly-erected maltings of 100 quarters steep, granary and warehouses capable of storing 16,000 quarters of corn, with extensive frontages upon the Wet Dock, Ipswich, with free right of wharfage. Also two dwelling houses, with shops and premises in Fore Street, St. Clement’s, Ipswich.
London Regiment, 1st (City of London)
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