TITANIC HERO
Medals sale of ship survivor who fought in First World War
THE medals of a tank commander who signed up to fight in the First World War after surviving the Titanic disaster are up for sale.
Major Frank Prentice was an assistant storekeeper on the doomed ship and saved himself by jumping 100ft into the icy water as it sank.
The terrified 23-year-old then clung to a piece of wreckage until he was picked up by a lifeboat.
Frank returned to the UK and began serving on the RMS Oceanic, which was converted into an armoured cruiser after war broke out in 1914. But he found himself jumping into the sea for a second time when the vessel ran aground and sank off the Shetland Islands.
He decided he would be safer on dry land, so signed up for the Royal Engineers, for which he served on the Western Front.
Frank was then commissioned temporary Second Lieutenant in the Tank Corps in 1917.
During the Battle of Hamel, in July 1918, he smashed through the enemy lines in his tank. Frank destroyed a nest of machine guns as he breached the German trench. He then jumped out of his tank and captured several of the enemy, pulling one out “by his gas mask”.
He was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry and went on to marry Mabel in 1919 and have three children.
Frank died in Bournemouth in 1982, aged 93.
His Military Cross, along with his 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory medals, are being sold by auctioneers Noonans Mayfair next Wednesday.
Oliver Pepys, Noonans specialist, said: “Frank Prentice had an eventful life, to say the least.”
Frank Prentice had an eventful life, to say the least OLIVER PEPYS FROM AUCTIONEERS NOONANS