PRUDDEN, Stanley Martin
| Service Number: | 5410 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 20 March 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 24th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, 1895 |
| Home Town: | Hawthorn, Boroondara, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Sign Writer |
| Died: | Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia, 26 June 1952, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne Cremated - plaque at Section: Tristania, Wall 4AA, Niche 137 |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 20 Mar 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 5410, 24/39 Infantry Battalion AMF | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Aug 1916: | Embarked Private, 5410, 24th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Miltiades, Melbourne | |
| 1 Aug 1916: | Involvement Private, 5410, 24th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '14' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Miltiades embarkation_ship_number: A28 public_note: '' | |
| 3 Apr 1918: | Wounded AIF WW1, 5410, Gassed from an enemy gas shell. Taken to 25th British General Hospital at Hardelot-Plage, then to Ecault for convalescence. | |
| 2 Sep 1918: | Wounded 5410, Wounded in Action - remained on duty. | |
| 20 May 1919: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 5410, 24th Infantry Battalion, Embarked England for the return trip to Australia per "Nestor", | |
| 23 Oct 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 5410, 24th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Stanley Martin Prudden's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Linda Neate
By the time Stanley Martin Prudden enlisted on 20 March, 1916, age 20 and one month, he was a married man with a wife and baby daughter, a home around the corner from his mother-in-law and his own parents within walking distance. Stan was a signwriter with a tattoo on his right arm, 5'4", fair complexion, fair hair and blue eyes that look out at you quite piercingly from his army photo.
Stan married his cousin Mona Ashman, and may have been inspired to join up by Mona's sister's husband, Alexander ("Joe") Stenhouse Hume, who had joined up not long before.
So, tied down early with family responsibilities, was this a good opportunity to earn more money, or was he a young man looking for adventure, or perhaps a chance to meet up with English relatives, in particular his cousin Stanley who had joined up in May, 1915? Maybe a combination of all of that.
War service saw admissions to hospital within a period of two years with diarrhoea, fever, gassed, wounded and "dangerously ill" with bronchial-pneumonia and the dreaded influenza.
Stan returned to Australia, his signwriting job, wife and 4-year-old daughter, with the subsequent arrival of a son and another daughter completing the family unit.
Mona was a member of strong family network that maintained connections and support throughout the war years and beyond. Her sisters and brothers all settled into houses close to each other, and her brothers and a number of nieces and nephews were directly caught up in the hostilities of World War 2. Family lore suggests that times were hard, life could present its challenges, with moves early on to find the cheapest rent (not uncommon), and that Stan and brother-in-law "Joe", together, always "came to grief" on Anzac Day.
By 1931, Stan, Mona and the three children had settled into a home in Munro Street, where they stayed until Stan's death at the relatively young at age of 56 years, in the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.
Official records tell us what is important for the record keepers to know, but the untold suffering and long-term effects involve more than those words reveal.
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