Henry Cecil Prescott

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]

Lieutenant-Colonel

Henry Cecil Prescott

CMG CIE
Born(1882-03-01)1 March 1882
Cheshire, England
Died3 August 1960(1960-08-03) (aged 78)
Saint Peter, Jersey
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
 British India
Years of service1900–28
RankLieutenant-Colonel
Battles/warsSouth African War
World War I
AwardsCMG CIE MID
Other workInspector-General of Iraq Police; Chief of Police, Southern Railways, India

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 the Two Rivers 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]

gollark: *Reading manuals.*
gollark: I think it would be much more useful to actually teach basic computer use. How to solve basic problems (application of the search engine). What all the various cables are for. Basic computer maintenence.
gollark: They also gave people custom hardware (micro:bits), which probably isn't great either since people won't realize you can just do programming stuff on a regular home computer or laptop to automate annoying tasks and whatnot.
gollark: But then they only get taught random details about some car components, and then build cars out of paper.
gollark: It's like if someone said "cars are vital to the modern economy, so our children need to learn how to ~~use cars~~ build cars from scratch".

References
  1. Obituary, The Times, Lt.-Col. H. C. Prescott, 5 August 1960, p.12
  2. 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. "No. 27429". The London Gazette. 29 April 1902. pp. 2862–2863.
  6. "Harts Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List, 1907". Mocavo. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  7. "The India Office and Burma Office List". google.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  8. "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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