CAPT. MERVYN PALLES PRATT, O.B.B., 121ST PIONEERS, INDIAN ARMY. DIED ON ACTIVE SERVICE ON THE N.W. FRONTIER, INDIA, APRIL 13TH, 1920. AGED 26. At the School 1907—10 (School House). Capt. Mervyn Palles Pratt, O.B.E., was the only son of the late Major Joseph Dallas Pratt, F.R.C.S.I., M.D., Trin. Coll., Dublin, R.A.M.C. (T.F.), and Mrs. Dallas Pratt, of 19, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, and a grandnephew of the late Rt. Hon. Christopher Palles, P.C, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland. After leaving St. Stephen's Green School, Dublin, he was at Castle Park School, Dalkey, co. Dublin, till he entered the School House in May, 1907. After leaving School at Easter, 1910, he spent a year in Germany and France, and then, in May, 1911, entered Trinity College, Dublin. There he had made his mark, especially in the O.T.C., and was an University candidate for a commission in the Indian Army. He had taken a course at the School of Musketry, Hythe, with distinction, in 1912, had obtained certificate " A " in 1912 and " B " in 1913, and had been promoted Sergeant in the University O.T.C. in 1912, and C.Q.M.S. and then Company Sergeant-major in July, 1914. When war broke out he was at Aldershot serving as a M.C. despatch rider at the Army manoeuvres. He was given a commission on August 26th in the Unattached List, I.A., antedated to January 13th. Owing, however, to his special qualifications, he was kept for a time at Trinity College as Musketry Instructor, assisting in the training of candidates for commissions in the New Armies, till, having applied for active service, he was posted on December 20th, 1914, as a Temporary Lieutenant to the 5th Battn. of the Royal Irish Regiment, the Pioneer Battn. of the now famous 10th Division. With this Battalion he went to Gallipoli, and took part in the landing at Suvla Bay, August 6th and 7th, 1915, and in subsequent operations, till October, when he was sent to India, and posted, on November 13th, 1915, to the 121st Pioneers, I.A., in the Derajat Brigade, He proceeded to the Frontier almost at once, was at Tank for a while, and then, owing to the shortage of officers, was sent up to command a fort called Nili Kutch, one of the furthest outposts in Waziristan. There, and at Kajuri Kutch and Murtaza, he saw a good deal of Mahsud warfare, and had tremendous responsibilities for so young an officer. He was promoted Lieutenant April 14th, 1916, and this was antedated to September 1st, 1915. At Nili he did so well that he was left in command of the fort for four months with no other white man with him, and was complimented by the General. In August, 1916, he was sent to Mesopotamia, became for a time attached to the 34th Sikh Pioneers, and was sent up to Amara in command of 300 men on road construction. After rejoining his Regiment, the 121st Pioneers, he was promoted Acting Captain as a Company Commander, January 22nd, 1917. On February 22nd, in the Sanna-i-Yat fighting he was wounded in seven places as the result of the explosion of a Turkish land mine, whilst his orderly was killed by his side and several of his men were wounded. The most serious wound involved injury to the sciatic nerve, and it was not till after several months in hospital in India that he was sent to the depot at Meerut. His leg still rendered him unfit for active service, and he was almost immediately appointed Adjutant of the newly-formed 2nd Battn. of the 107th Pioneers, the link Battalion of the 121st, at Bareilly. For several weeks in August, 1917, he was in command of this Battalion with the acting rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and on January 13th, 1918, he received his Captaincy, six months sooner than usual, in recognition of his services. He was very hard worked at Bareilly till April, 1918, when he was sent home for an operation on his leg. Later in that year he spent some time at Tonbridge, and did some useful instructional work with the School O.T.C. Though his general health was much undermined, he succeeded in being passed for light duty in December, and served as Assistant Instructor at the Irish Command Officers' School at Ballykinler, co. Down, till May, 1919, when, though still far from fit, he was ordered to India. On reaching Egypt towards the end of May he was sent to join his Regiment in Palestine, and served there till August, when he proceeded to India and the N.W. Frontier, to which he was so devoted. Volunteering for railway construction duty, he became attached to the 122nd Railway Construction Company with the Waziristan F.F., and carried out most successfully the work assigned to him, including the building of the Kaury Bridge, which he completed a month earlier than had been promised. The Pioneers were now to be merged in the Sappers and Miners, and were to take up special branches of work, and he elected to specialise in railway construction, but went temporarily with his company to assist his Colonel in roadmaking at Jandola. He still suffered much from his old wound and from malaria; but, though not fit for such strenuous work, he refused to give in, and carried on with wonderful grit and determination until finally he collapsed. Admitted to hospital at Munzai on April 1st, 1920, he died from heart failure on April 13th, and was buried in Kirghi military cemetery. The bearers were six Irish officers, of whom four were Trinity College, Dublin, men, and the guard of honour consisted of men of his own native Regiment. He was mentioned in General Allenby's Despatch dated March 5th, 1919, for his services with the Egyptian E.F., and was awarded the O.B.E. (Military), dated June 3rd, 1919, for valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in Palestine. His name was also amongst those added in January, 1920, to the lists of officers mentioned in the E.E.F. Despatch of July Ist, 1916. As the writer of a notice in a Dublin paper testified, he was a bom soldier and a gallant officer, the idol of those under his command, utterly fearless and straight as a die, endeared to his many friends by his open, kindly and generous nature. The Chaplain wrote :— " It is a great tribute to his character that he was so much liked and respected by the Indians who worked under him. He stuck to his work too long ; he should have given in long before." And the Senior Medical Officer:— " I should like to tell you how much your son was liked by every one with whom he came in contact; he was one of the finest officers I ever knew, and it was only his extraordinary grit which enabled him to carry on up here on the Frontier after the very bad wound which he received in Mesopotamia. . . . I expect you know of your son's extraordinary love for the Frontier on which he died."