New Brentford (St. Lawrence) Burial Ground Housing Development

On the BBC local news re the church yard being redeveloped for housing and numerous bodies being re located including WW1 and English Civil War casualties. The news report mentioned the WW1 casualties being moved to Brookwood which appears not to take into account the CWGC commemoration at Isleworth

The 2 WW1 casualties have a special memorial headstone in Isleworth Cemetery

'850 bodies' are being dug up at churchyard to make way for new houses
GUNNER A G L ELLEN
Service Number: 163795
Regiment & Unit/Ship

Royal Field Artillery

33rd Bty. 32nd Bde.

Date of Death
Died 08 September 1917

Age 36 years old

Buried or commemorated at
ISLEWORTH CEMETERY

Spec. Memorial.

United Kingdom

• Country of ServiceUnited Kingdom
• Additional InfoHusband of Nellie Ellen, of 102, High St., Brentford. Alternative Commemoration - buried in New Brentford (St. Lawrence) Burial Ground.

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LIEUTENANT MERRICK ORVILLE PRISMALL
Regiment & Unit/Ship
Royal Flying Corps

37th Training Sqdn.

Date of Death
Died 20 December 1917

Buried or commemorated at
ISLEWORTH CEMETERY

Spec. Memorial.

United Kingdom

• Secondary Unit, Regimentand Royal Field Artillery
• Country of ServiceUnited Kingdom
• Additional InfoAlternative Commemoration - buried in New Brentford (St. Lawrence) Burial Ground.

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Second Lieutenant Merrick Prismall was something of an unsung war hero.

His amazing life and death was recorded in a magazine produced by his old school, St Edmund's College in Hertfordshire.

The school described him as having "inexhaustable cheerfulness" and the "instincts of a sportsman" though noted "bookishness" was not his thing and he often had good-natured disagreements with his teachers. He was clearly quite a character.

After leaving school he travelled far and wide across Australia aged just 18.

In 1914, after having served for a short time with the Windsor troop of the Berkshire Yeomanry, he served in South Africa with the 2nd South African Mounted Rifles. At Estcourt his thigh was shattered by gun shot. But he still served through the Moritz Rebellion, and later, under General Botha, through the German South West African Campaign in World War One.

Later he applied for service in France, and was commissioned to the Royal Field Artillery. Early in 1916 he went to France, and was wounded again at the Somme.

In February 1916 he joined the Royal Flying Corps, and served for six Months as an observer.

He then returned to England in September, and on October 3 was married to Miss Marie Conerford, of Woodford Green, Essex.

But on December 20 he was tragically killed in an aeroplane accident near Grantham when his aircraft nose-dived into the ground. The cause was never identified and no one was ever held to blame.

 

Merrick Orville Prismall, Lieut. RFC. Special memorial at Isleworth, but buried at the historic St Lawrence's Church, Brentford, nearby. His birth was registered at Brentford in the first quarter of 1892. I am unable to find his memorial. Work is presently under way at St Lawrence's (Jan. 2009) and memorials appear to have been removed. Merrick Prismall was a pupil at St Edmund's College, a Catholic boarding school at Old Hall Green, near Ware, in Hertfordshire, from 1905 to 1908. Seventy-four ex-pupils died in the First World War and fourty-four in the second. He had been at primary school in Bognor, also as a boarder. This is the contemporary report of Prismall's life and death:- Lieutenant MERRICK ORVILLE PRISMALL, R.F.A. and R.F.C., second son of Lieutenant-Colonel E. Prismall, T.D. (attached General Staff Canadian Oversea Forces), was killed as the result of an aeroplane accident while flying near Grantham on December 20th, aged 25 years. He was educated at St. Edmund's College, Old Hall, and served for a short time in the Windsor Troop of the Berkshire Yeomanry. He left England at the age of 18 to explore, and visited Queensland, Northern Territories of Australia, New Zealand, the back blocks of New South Wales, Natal, Orange Free State, and Cape Colony. In 1913 he was serving in the 2nd South African Mounted Rifles, and had his thigh shattered at Estcourt as the result of a gunshot wound. In 1914 he served through the Moritz Rebellion and afterwards through the German South-West African campaign under General Botha. On reaching Windhoek, at the end of this campaign, he applied for service in France, and returning to England, received a commission in the R.F.A. He went to France early in 1916, and was wounded at the Somme. Last February he joined the R.F.C., and served as an observer for six months. After 18 months' service in France he returned to England last September, and married Miss Marie Comerford, of Woodford Green, Essex. At the time of his death, Merrick appears to have been living at Ealing. His wife later returned to Woodford Green. The inscription on the provisional headstone does indicate that both men named are still buried at Brentford.




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Albert George Leopold Ellen
1880–1917
BIRTH OCT 1880 • Pewsey, Wiltshire, England
DEATH 8 SEP 1917 • Lambeth, Greater London, England

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
Name: Albert George Leopold Ellen
Residence: Poole, Dorset
Death Date: 8 Sep 1917
Death Place: Home
Enlistment Place: Poole
Rank: Gunner
Regiment: Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery
Regimental Number: 163795
Type of Casualty: Died of wounds
Theatre of War: Home

UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
Name: Albert George Leopold Ellen
Gender: Male
Death Date: 8 Sep 1917
Rank: Gunner
Regiment: RFA 33/33rd Brigade
Regimental Number: 163795


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