WILLLIAM ALBERT PRATT was serving as a Private in the 5th (Service) Battalion, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry when he was killed in action on 3rd May 1917. He was aged 26 and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, having no known grave.

He was the son of William and Sarah Pratt of 1 Geels Lane, Milcombe and worked as a farm labourer. He had enlisted into the Oxford and Bucks in Oxford in 1915, and was posted to the 7th (Service) Battalion. He was transferred to the 5th Battalion and arrived in France on 1st October 1915. As part of the 14th (Light) Division they saw action in the Battles of Delville Wood and Flers-Courcelette, phases of the 1916 Somme Offensive. In early 1917 they cautiously pursued the Germans in their retreat to the Hindenburg Line. On April 9th 1917 they took part in the First Battle of the Scarpe, part of the Arrras Offensive. On 3rd May they were involved in another attack near the Scarpe River. After initially capturing a German held trench an counter attack at 1100 forced them back to their lines. Casualties suffered by the Battalion were 287 killed, missing or wounded.

Steve Kingsford