Henry Cecil Prescott

Lieutenant-Colonel
Henry Cecil Prescott
CMG CIE
Born (1882-03-01)1 March 1882
Cheshire, England
Died 3 August 1960(1960-08-03) (aged 78)
Saint Peter, Jersey
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  British Army
 British India
Years of service 1900-28
Rank Lieutenant-Colonel
Battles/wars South African War
World War I
Awards CMG CIE MID
Other work Inspector-General of Iraq Police; Chief of Police, Southern Railways, India

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Cecil Prescott CMG CIE (1 March 1882– 3 August 1960) was Inspector-General of Police in Iraq (1920-1935) and Chief of Police of the Southern Railway in India (1935–47).[1][2]

Early life

Henry Cecil Prescott was born in Cheshire on 1 March 1882, the son of Arthur Edward Prescott (who had died at the time of the 1891 census) and Kathleen Ann Augusta Prescott.[3][4] He was educated at Bedford Modern School.[2]

Career

Prescott was commissioned in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and served as a lieutenant in the Second Boer War (1901–02), for which he received the Queen’s Medal with five clasps.[2] On his return to the United Kingdom, he received a commission in a regular regiment when he was appointed second lieutenant in The South Wales Borderers on 30 April 1902.[5] In 1903 he transferred to the Indian Army in the 69th Punjabis[6] until his appointment as Assistant Superintendent in the Burma Police in January 1908.[7] In December 1910 he was made District Superintendent of three districts in Burma.[7]

At the outbreak of World War I, Prescott rejoined the Indian Army; he was promoted Major in August 1916.[8] In June 1917 he was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Iraq Police firstly in Basra and then in Baghdad.[8] In 1918 he was made Commissioner.[8] In 1920, Prescott was made Inspector-General of the Iraq Police until his resignation in 1935.[1][9] In a statement of service, he later wrote, ‘If it had not been for the seizing of power by the opposition (many of the leaders of whom I had arrested and placed in prison for the safety of the country) I should have remained in command for some years longer’.[8]

Prescott was later made Chief of Police of the Southern Railway in India for 12 years until his retirement in 1947.[1]

Awards and honours

During World War I he was mentioned in despatches and made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1919.[2] In 1926 he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), and towards the end of his service in Iraq he received the Order of Al Rafidain 2nd Class.[2] A collection of his medals were sold at auction on 2 March 2005.[10]

Family life

A keen polo player, Prescott was in the championship team of Iraq for 1933, 1934 and 1935.[8] He married Mary Augusta, daughter of Edward Chisholm.[1] They had two sons, one of whom was killed on active service in 1939.[1] Prescott eventually retired to St. Peter’s, Jersey where he died on 3 August 1960.[8][11][12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Obituary, The Times, Lt.-Col. H. C. Prescott, 5 August 1960
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Who’s Who 1935, Published by A&C Black Limited, 1935
  3. ↑ "Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records at Ancestry.co.uk". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Ranieval, The Marquis of Ruvigny and (1 May 2013). The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Mortimer-Percy Volume. Heritage Books. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7884-1872-3.
  5. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 27429. pp. 2862–2863. 29 April 1902.
  6. ↑ "Harts Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List, 1907". Mocavo. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  7. 1 2 "The India Office and Burma Office List". google.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Lot 984, Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to incl... (2 March 2005) - Dix Noonan Webb". dnw.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "PRESCOTT, Henry Cecil (1882 - 1960), Chief of Police, retired, Southern Railway; Indian Army, retired, 1928". oup.com. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "Lot 984, Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to incl... (2 March 2005) - Dix Noonan Webb". dnw.co.uk. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  11. ↑ "Jersey Heritage - Details". jerseyheritage.org. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  12. ↑ Who Was Who, Published by A&C Black Limited, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920-2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014
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