Ernest Pryor
Ernest Pryor was born in Welwyn on the 13th March 1895 to James Pryor, a cowman and his wife Elizabeth in Mimram Road. His baptism took place on the 2nd June that year in St. Mary’s Church. Ernest seems to lived in the family home, working as a Farm Hand, until shortly before he left for the war. He attended Welwyn Evening School between 1907 and 1909.
He enlisted at Winchester in August 1914 and by March the following year had been promoted to Lance Corporal. Unfortunately for Ernest he was demoted back to Rifleman in June after being found guilty of ‘breaking out of barracks when orderly corporal’. In July 15th he was posted to the BEF in the first wave of his Battalion’s reinforcement.
He was posted missing on the 11th May 1916, in a manner which must have been very distressing for his family and as reported in the press in early June -
WELWYN
LOCAL SOLDIER ENTOMBED
Mrs. J. Pryor, of Mimram Road, Welwyn
has received an official communication
respecting her son, Pte. E. Pryor of the King’s
Royal Rifles, which has caused the greatest
anxiety as to his fate. The letter is to
the effect that Pte. Pryor was posted as ‘missing
and entombed’ after an engagement on May
11. No further information has yet been
obtained of the missing soldier.
Ernest’s elder brother, William served in the 1/4th Essex Regiment and survived the war.
Ernest is also commemorated on the Welwyn Scouts Memorial
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