On Friday 10 November 2023, the Deputy Lieutenant of South Yorkshire, Christopher Jewitt, unveiled a plaque commemorating the Pridmore Brothers of Sheffield. Also in attendance at the unveiling were the Senior Warden of the Company of Cutlers, Phil Rodrigo, the High Sheriff of South Yorkshire, Professor Jaydip Ray, Councillors, Veterans and Community Representatives.
It has been an honour for East Midlands Railway to work with Sheffield City Council, veterans’ organisations and the Pridmore family to provide an appropriate location for the plaque, which commemorates the four brothers who left from Sheffield station to serve in the Great War and who were all were killed during active service. This was the single biggest loss to a family in the City of Sheffield.
Private John Thomas Pridmore (23/02/1881 - 14/10/1914) served in the 2nd Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was the first of the family to join the army and fought in South Africa throughout the Boer War. Joining up again in 1914, he was one of the first troops to go to France and was in receipt of the Mons Star. He was killed in action on 14th October 1914 as the army slowly advanced towards Ypres, aged 33.
Private Arthur Edward Pridmore (01/04/1883 - 18/10/1914), also served with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was a lifelong soldier, from joining the army at 18 to fight the Boer War, to dying at Ypres at the age of 31. When war broke out, Arthur was in the British Expeditionary Force and in the thick of the first fighting. He was killed four days after his older brother.
Sergeant Albert Pridmore (01/05/1879 - 22/06/1917), was in the 24th (Territorial) Battalion, the York & Lancaster Regiment. He joined up at the age of 36, with a wife and five children to support and two brothers already killed, and served in France from January 1916. He was wounded in action on 2nd May 1917 during the Battle of Arras and died of his wounds in a Bradford hospital seven weeks later on 22nd June aged 38.
Lieutenant George Harry Pridmore (23/06/1896 - 31/08/1918) was the youngest of the four brothers. He was a labourer at a Sheffield steel works, but only until he was old enough to join the army. The First World War broke out shortly after his eighteenth birthday. He was on the front lines from 1916, quickly promoted to corporal, wounded in action and sent to Scotland for officer training. In 1917, he was commissioned Lieutenant of the Prince of Wales Own Regiment (having previously served in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry like two of his brothers). He was posted back to the fighting in France, where he was killed in action on the Cambrai Road, Arras on 31st August 1918, aged 22, two months before the end of the war.
The plaque is situated on one of the arches between the main concourse and the entrance and stairs to the platforms.
It is an honour not only to recognise the remarkable bravery of these four Sheffield brothers, but all those who sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their lives in times of conflict.