Harold Prest

Harold Edward Westray Prest (9 January 1890 – 5 January 1955) was an English amateur cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club before and after the First World War.

Early life Prest was both in Beckenham in what was then part of Kent, the son of Stanley and Emily Priest. His father was a director of an engineering company and Prest was educated at Abbey School in Beckenham before going on to Malvern College where he played in the school First XI for three years, making a high score of 174 not out in 1908 as he headed the Malvern batting averages. He was considered by Wisden as a fine, aggressive schoolboy batsman with "excellent style", as well as a good fielder As well as cricket, Prest also won Blues in football and golf. He did not play any first-class cricket in 1910 due to injury, resuming his career in 1911, playing 19 matches in total during the season, by far his most productive. He played ten times for Kent and nine times for Cambridge during the season and made a total of 747 runs, including his only first-class century, a score of 133 not out for Kent against Somerset.

Loses amongst other officers meant that Prest was promoted to acting captain and given command of a company towards the end of 1916. He saw front line action at Bouchavesnes in March 1917, repulsing a German counter-attack and was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre.