William Alfred Prince

Born 22 Sept 1885 - Died 15 Sept 1916

Service number: WWI 12/3448 AWMM
Also known as: —
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
Last rank: WW1 Private AWMM Auckland Infantry Regiment AWMM
War: World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM

William Alfred Prince — Portrait, Auckland Weekly News 1916 - No known copyright restrictions No Known Copyright Restrictions

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Biographical information

William Alfred Prince was born in Auckland on 22 September 1885, the son of Arthur Prince and Annie Maria Prince (née Joslin). He was raised in the Church of England. Before World War I he lived at 163 Grafton Road, Auckland, and worked as a grocer for the National Trading Company in Rotorua.

Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira holds William Alfred Prince's wartime correspondence (MS-2011-3), comprising 41 letters, postcards and related items dating from 1915 to 1916. The collection follows Prince from Trentham Camp and the voyage aboard Willochra, through Egypt and into the trenches of the Western Front, and continues with correspondence received by his family following his death. A selection of Prince's letters and postcards can be viewed online through Pou Kanohi: New Zealand at War.

Prince enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1915. He trained at Trentham Military Camp and was posted to the Auckland Infantry Battalion. On 8 November, shortly before leaving New Zealand, he wrote to his mother Annie and his sister Ruby from Trentham (MS-2011-3-1).

He embarked with the 8th Reinforcements, Auckland Infantry Battalion, aboard the troopship Willochra on 13 November 1915. During the voyage he wrote regularly to his family, describing the journey from New Zealand and life aboard the troopship (MS-2011-3-2 to MS-2011-3-5).

Prince arrived in Egypt in December 1915. He sent a Christmas Day postcard announcing his arrival (MS-2011-3-6) and subsequently wrote from Zeitoun Camp on 28 December 1915 and 4 January 1916 (MS-2011-3-7 and MS-2011-3-8). By 14 February he was at Port Said (MS-2011-3-9).

In 1916 Prince proceeded to France with the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment and served on the Western Front. His correspondence continued throughout his service in France, recording both everyday life and the increasing intensity of the fighting.

By May he was experiencing sustained artillery warfare. On 6 May he wrote that the men heard the big guns at breakfast, dinner and tea, and sometimes throughout the night. He described a particularly heavy bombardment the previous day and aeroplanes coming under fire overhead (MS-2011-3-16). A letter written on 20 May still contains a dried flower (MS-2011-3-17).

During June and July Prince spent periods in the front line. On 14 July he wrote from the trenches (MS-2011-3-23), and on 24 July gave his location simply as "The Ditches" (MS-2011-3-24).

By late August the intensity of the fighting had increased. A letter written on 23 August contains a pressed pansy or viola (MS-2011-3-27). Three days later Prince described German shelling and the need to get quickly into the dugouts when it began. At night he watched the sky illuminated by gun flashes and bursting shells, with explosions throwing timber, corrugated iron and earth into the air (MS-2011-3-28a).

In September 1916 the New Zealand Division prepared to take part in the Battle of the Somme. On 8 September Prince described an enormous bombardment taking place only a few miles away, writing that he had never heard anything like it before (MS-2011-3-29).

He sent a postcard to his mother on 12 September (MS-2011-3-30). The following day he wrote again, mentioning large numbers of German prisoners working on nearby roads and observing that they appeared pleased to be away from the trenches (MS-2011-3-31). It was his final surviving letter.

William Alfred Prince was killed in action on 15 September 1916, the opening day of the New Zealand Division's involvement in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on the Somme. He was 30 years old.

News of his death reached his family in New Zealand in the weeks that followed. The surviving correspondence includes the telegram sent to his mother on 3 October 1916 (MS-2011-3-32), a postcard from the New Zealand Advanced Base Army Post Office (MS-2011-3-33), letters from Emily Proctor (MS-2011-3-34 and MS-2011-3-36), and a condolence letter from Chaplain E. E. Malden dated 24 November 1916 (MS-2011-3-35).

Prince had been engaged to Jean (Janet) Telford. Her family later remembered him through photographs and personal material retained after his death.

Prince has no known grave and is commemorated on the Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial at Longueval, France, and in the World War I Hall of Memories at Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. AWMM

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William Alfred Prince