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Chief Petty Officer George Prowse VC DCM (29 August 1886 – 27 September 1918) served with the Drake Battalion of the Royal Naval Division in the Gallipol Campaign and on the Western Front of the First World War. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions on 21 August 1918 in capturing a German machine gun and its crew which was holding up his company's advance, and on a later day holding a captured position for over 24 hours in the face of repeated counterattacks and heavy bombardment. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for actions on 2 September when he collected a small group of men to attack a German strongpoint, capturing it along with 5 machine guns and 23 men. Later he singlehandedly attacked an ammunition limber which was recovering ammunition, capturing the limber and killing 3 men. On 4 September he led an attack on 2 German machine guns in a concrete emplacement, killing 6, capturing the machine guns and taking 13 prisoner. He was the only member of the attacking party to survive. He was killed in action on 27 September 1918, he has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial.

The National Archives holds Prowse's service record,^[1] and details about his VC are also online.^[2]

There has been some uncertainty about his date and place of birth. His service record gives it as 28 August 1896, but his entry in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission states that he was 32 at his death, which would place his birth in 1886.^[3] Early editions of the Register of the Victoria Cross give his birthdate as 27 June 1895. His birthplace has variously been reported as Newton Abbot, Devon; Camerton, Somerset (near Bristol) or the nearby town of Paulton. Recent research in South Wales suggests that he was actually born there on 29 August 1886, and this is the date given on the Blue Plaque on the house where it seems he was born in Gilfach Goch, now in the Rhondda Cynon Taff unitary authority,^[4] also the records of the 1901 census show a 15-year-old George Prowse, Coal Miner and General Labourer, born in Wales, and living in Camerton.^[5] His service record records his employment at enlistment as Collier. The 1891 census lists a George Prowse, "scholar", born at a place transcribed as Gilrock, Glamorgan, Wales.^[6]

[edit] See also

• Wikipedia article on Prowse

1. ↑ Online in DocumentsOnline (and transcription)
2. ↑ Registers of the Victoria Cross (and transcription )
3. ↑ Casualty details-Prowse, George, Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
4. ↑ South Wales Echo, "Valleys village honours VC war hero 90 years on", Ben Glaze, 20 October 2006
5. ↑ 1901 Census search result(a fee may be payable to view this image)
6. ↑ 1891 Census search result(a fee may be payable to view this image)