PRATT, Cyril Frederick
| Service Number: | WX6079 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 30 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | London, England, 14 September 1912 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | labourer |
| Died: | Beverley, Western Australia, 31 January 1995, aged 82 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 30 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX6079, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan 1941: | Embarked 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, from Fremantle; disembarked Middle East 2 Feb 1941 | |
| 20 Nov 1942: | Imprisoned Middle East / Mediterranean Theatre, reported missing in action 27 Jul 1942; officially reported POW 20 Nov 1942; interned various camps | |
| 13 Oct 1944: | Embarked from UK to Australia; arrived in Australia 16 Nov 1944; entrained at Melbourne 18 Nov 1944; arrived in Perth 22 Nov 1944 | |
| 14 Mar 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX6079, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Cyril Frederick Pratt's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
Cyril was the son of Frederick and Florence, of St John's Wood, London, England. He enlisted in Claremont, WA, giving his London-based parents as his next of kin.
In April 1941, two months after disembarking in the Middle East, he was hospitalised for a week with pneumonia, and would go on to spend much of September in hospital as well.
In June 1941, his next of kin was updated to include his fiance, Miss Patricia Heston of Goode Street, Perth.
Cyril was captured at Ruin Ridge, El Alamein, on 27 Jul 1942 when his battalion was surrounded by enemy tanks. He was a POW on board the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio when it was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. He was one of the 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident.
Cyril spent most of his internment at Benghazi, Buri and PG57 (Udine). He described the accommodation and sanitation as fair, rations as insufficient and poor quality, and behaviour of internment camp staffs as vindictive.
On his discharge papers, Cyril gave his intended residence as Doodlakine, a small town in WA's wheatbelt.
His engagement to Patricia did not end in marriage. But he did marry, in 1945, to Lily Doreen BUSH. Cyril died in 1995 aged 82. Lily died in 2019, aged 93.