REVIEW: ORDERS, DECORATIONS, MEDALS AND MILITARIA 7 DECEMBER

His heroism on the Western Front earned him the Military Cross, but it was his extraordinary adventures at sea for which Major F. W. Prentice of the Tank Corps, late Royal Engineers, would be remembered.

They were dramatic experiences which made Prentice think that he would be safer in the army. All this was recalled when his medal group came up for auction in this sale.

Estimated at £8,000-10,000, the Great War ‘Western Front’ M.C. group of four was awarded to Prentice ‘For great initiative and gallantry during an attack’ towards the end of hostilities.

He won the award after patrolling his tank in front of the infantry, destroying hostile machine-gun groups, smashing one gun and capturing another.

“He then directed his tank through the protective barrage to subdue guns on the far side,” read the London Gazette. “On one occasion he got out of his tank, followed by a gunner, and captured several of the enemy, pulling one out of a trench by his gas mask.”

The original Recommendation, for an Immediate Award, noted how on July 4, 1918, during the attack on Hamel and Vaire Wood, near Corbie, Prentice had shown “the very greatest initiative and gallantry”.

Evidence of Prentice’s mettle had come years before when he served as an Assistant Storekeeper on the R.M.S. Titanic and survived her sinking on her maiden voyage in April 1912 by jumping 100 feet from the poop deck over the propellors just as the stern disappeared into the freezing North Atlantic.

Aged just 23, Frank Winnold Prentice had already served in the Celtic, for the monthly wage of £3 15s, before joining the Titanic at Southampton.

Interviewed on television and in books later in life, he told how he and fellow storekeepers Michael Kieran and Cyril Ricks had jumped from the stern in the final moments of the sinking, jumping off well over 100 feet above the water almost over the warning notice ‘Warning: This vessel is triple screwed, keep clear of the blades’ board which was mounted on the poop deck railing.

Ricks broke his leg during their abandonment of the ship, but Prentice found him in the water and stayed with him until he died.

Finding some wreckage to cling to, Prentice eventually managed to swim to Lifeboat 4, and was pulled aboard. It was there that he encountered a young woman whom he had helped to get onto the lifeboat earlier.

“I was in a pretty bad way then, as you can imagine, frozen solid almost, and she wrapped me round with her cloak – she had some sort of blanket or a coat on – and I think she probably saved my life. I saved hers – at least I think I did – and she saved mine.”

Before abandoning the ship, Prentice recalled that he had taken a bottle of brandy with him; still clinging to it as he was picked up, the bottle caught the eye of the officer in charge of the lifeboat, who promptly took it from him (before Prentice had drunk any of it) and threw it overboard.

Eventually picked up by the Carpathia, Prentice disembarked at New York City on 18 April 1912.

He returned to England and signed on to the Oceanic on 10 July 1912. He was still serving on her when, following the outbreak of the Great War, it was converted into an armoured cruised and sailed from Southampton on 25 August 1914.

Her naval service was to last just two weeks, for on the morning of 8 September 1914 she ran aground on the notorious Shaalds of Foula reef off Shetland. Once again Prentice had to jump into the water and again, he was picked up by a lifeboat. Deciding that he had more than pushed his luck with ships and the sea, he decided at that point to join the Army.

Advanced Major, in later life Prentice reflected, “I’ve had a lot of experiences during my life Two World Wars. Badly shattered right arm. Another wound in the leg. And all anyone wants to know about is the Titanic.” He died in Bournemouth, Dorset, in May 1982.

The medal group was sold with copied research, including two VHS video cassettes containing the recipient’s recollections; a copy of Ghosts of the Titanic, by Charles Pellegrino, in which Prentice is quoted; and a bronze Royal Life Saving Society Swimming Proficiency Medal, the reverse named ‘A. P. Prentice, July 1938.

The lot fetched £24,000.