Profile

PRESTIDGE, Frank
(Service number 34727)

Frank Prestidge, circa 1916 — (Courtesy of J Holwell, South Canterbury Museum L2014/004.03)

Frank Prestidge (service no. 34727), circa 1916 — (Courtesy of J Holwell, South Canterbury Museum L2014/004.02)

Frank Prestidge (service no. 34727) and a group of other unidentified men, circa 1916 — Presumably the group is a batch of men trainees for World War One. (Courtesy of J Holwell, South Canterbury Museum L2014/004.04)

Temuka Patriotic Entertainment Committee ticket, dated 22 August 1916 — For the admission of C Prestidge, relative of a recruit Frank Prestidge. Frank is noted to have sailed with the NZEF on 7 December 1916 on the rear of the card. (Courtesy of J Holwell, South Canterbury Museum L2014/004.01)

Frank and Elsie Prestidge at their 50th wedding anniversary in 1973 — (Courtesy of G & J Holwell )

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank

Birth

Date	Unknown	Place of Birth

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment
Occupation	Farm hand
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin	C. Prestidge (father), Clandeboye, Temuka, New Zealand
Religion
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	20th Reinforcements Canterbury Infantry Battalion, C Company
Date	7 December 1916
Transport	Port Lyttelton
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination	Plymouth, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date		Age
Place of Death
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Prestidge was 20 years old when he enlisted in the Army in August 1916. Before he joined up he worked as a labourer on a farm at Clandeboye. He was reasonably tall, 5 foot 10 inches, and had brown eyes with brown hair. Prior to the war he had some limited military training, having served in a local general training section. He left New Zealand in December 1916 as part of the 20th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Battalion.

Prestidge was seriously wounded when he was on his way to the fighting at Passchendaele. He was shot in both the head and the right leg. He was evacuated from the front on 5 October 1917 by a Field Ambulance and later that day had his head operated on in a Casualty Clearing Station. Prestidge was taken to England for further treatment and then sent to the 1st New Zealand General Hospital. Incredibly he survived his wounds and began to recover.

Prestidge returned to New Zealand in May 1918 and was discharged from the Army because of his wounds. He had a hollow in his head from his bullet wound for the rest of his life and his leg wound caused lasting pain. After the war he returned to farming and then married and raised a family. Later he lived in Timaru and worked as grader driver, a job he held until his retirement. Prestidge died in Timaru Hospital in December 1980, aged 84.

Sources

Cenotaph (9 June 2014)

External Links

Researched and Written by

Tony Rippin (South Canterbury Museum)

Currently Assigned to

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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