Pritchard, William Henry

Date of birth:: October 22nd, 1914
Date of death:: March 28th, 1942
Buried on:: Commonwealth War Cemetery Escoublac-la-Baule
Plot: 2. Row: A. Grave: 5.
Nationality:: British

Biography

William Pritchard was born on 22nd October 1914 and lived in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, South Wales. His father was dock master at Cardiff Docks.
After completing his education, William served an apprenticeship with the engineering branch of the GWR (Great Western Railway) and worked in Cardiff Docks ,he joined the territorial army and commissioned into the Royal Engineers, 246 (Cardiff) Field Company.
In May 1940 William (now a lieutenant) went to Belgium as part of the BEF. He was tasked with blowing up a bridge. During this task he came under intense enemy fire, despite this he completed the task and was later awarded the military cross. He was evacuated from Dunkirk and returned to England.
When he returned to Cardiff he was promoted to Captain. He carried out a study of the German attacks on Cardiff Docks and concluded that placing explosives on vital parts of the dock would be far more effective then bombing as high altitude bombing was notoriously inaccurate.
In January 1942 he reported to Combined Operations HQ and he was instructed to plan an attack on St Nazaire and to help train the Commandos. Part of the training took place in Cardiff docks,along with the docks at Barry (South Wales), Rosyth (Scotland) and Southampton (England).
William went to St Nazaire as part of the raid and successfully attacked targets of opportunity.
During the battle William was mortally wounded and is buried in a marked commonwealth war grave.He received a posthumous mention in despatches.
The raid was success, the lock gate of the Normandy dry dock was destroyed along with other facilities.

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