Thomas Tannatt Pryce

Led final bayonet charge after his ammunition was exhausted.

Pryce was born in The Hague, Netherlands, on 17 January 1886, to a Welsh family. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. Before the war, he worked for Henry Tudor and Son in London and became a member of the London Stock Exchange in 1913. He enlisted as a private in the Honourable Artillery Company shortly after Britain entered the war. After service in France, he was commissioned into the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1915. He earned the Military Cross for leading a night raid at Gommecourt, then a Bar for directing a platoon in an attack under heavy fire. He transferred to the Grenadier Guards in 1916 and held acting captain rank by April 1918.

At Vieux-Berquin on 12 April 1918, Pryce was ordered to attack a village on the left of the Grenadier Guards. He led two platoons forward, moving from house to house and killing about thirty enemy soldiers, seven personally. The next morning, with the rest of his company lost to casualties, he held a position with roughly 30 to 40 men. His left flank came under enfilading fire, and German troops attacked repeatedly. Field guns moved close enough to fire directly into the trench, while the enemy gradually closed to within 60 yards. Pryce called his men to cheer and charge, and they drove the attackers back with bayonets. When a stronger assault followed, only 17 men remained and their ammunition was spent. Pryce led them out in another charge and was last seen in hand-to-hand combat. His group had held back at least one German battalion for more than ten hours and helped prevent a breakthrough.

Pryce was killed on 13 April 1918, aged 32. His body was not recovered for burial; his name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium. The Victoria Cross was presented to his widow by King George V in 1919. His medals are held by the Guards Museum at Wellington Barracks, London.