Universities at War

John Philip Price was born in 1892 in Shipston-on-Stour, the eldest son and second of five children of Phillip Price, an engine driver on the Great Western Railway, and his wife Elizabeth. In 1901 the family was living in Newport in Monmouthshire. Price had an association with Grove Park County School for Boys in Wrexham, either as a pupil or a teacher, and by 1911 he was an elementary school teacher for Cheshire County Council at Cheadle National School, living in Cheadle. He was also a member of Cheadle’s church choir, and Scout Master of its 1st Troop. He evidently wanted to better himself, for he then matriculated at Durham University’s affiliated Codrington College in Barbados in Easter Term 1913 as an Arts student. Quite why and how he came to Barbados is not clear. At some stage he joined the Barbados Volunteers and, on the outbreak of war, abandoned his studies to sail for England on the R.M.S. “Orotava”, travelling in the 2nd Saloon passenger. He arrived in London on 9 November 1914, with his fellow Codrington student, Humphrey Reece (killed, 2 April 1916). Price went back home to Wrexham, where his parents were living at 2 Maesgwyn Road. He enlisted there as a private in the 3rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 23 November. After less than six weeks of training he joined the 1st Battalion in France on 11 January 1915, presumably in a reinforcement draft. The battalion had almost been destroyed in the First Battle of Ypres and was in the process of rebuilding. John was clearly a competent soldier and was promoted Lance Corporal on 27 February, appointed an acting Orderly Room clerk on 13 March, and promoted Acting Sergeant on 16 March. He was killed in action on 16 May 1915 during his battalion’s involvement in the Battle of Festubert. (The University’s 1920 Roll of Honour incorrectly dates his death to 1916.) He has no known grave but is commemorated on the memorial at Le Touret cemetery in France.