The wedding of 50 years ago was conducted by the Rev. W. Dennison at Carlton Church, Beds., where both parties had been choristers from an early age. Mr. Prigmore was born at Carlton, and his bride, Harriet Frankland, at Chellington, which is almost the same thing. At their marriage the bridegroom was 24 and the bride 22.

Mr. Prigmore had worked on a farm and would have been in the Metropolitan Police had it not been for an accident in which his right arm was lacerated. Soon after his marriage he came to Rushden and worked for a time on the Sanders Lodge farm, then managed by the late Mr. Caswell. Later he learned the “tapping” under Mr. Albert Stock, now of Irchester, and passed into Mr. Amos Wright’s boot factory at the top of Fitzwilliam-street.

Ambulance Duties

In 1897 Mr. Prigmore gained his first-aid certificate as a member of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, and throughout the last war he served at Dover with the Royal Naval Sick Berth Reserve. He became a first-class sergeant in the Ambulance Brigade, and at the end of the war, when Rushden acquired its first motor ambulance, he was placed in charge of the transport work, which he continued until last year. On these duties he travelled many thousands of miles and became a familiar figure at Northampton General Hospital, seldom taking in a new case without looking-up the other Rushden patients there. His longest runs were to Bangor, Pontefract and Canterbury, and he was not once involved in an accident. By way of diversion, however, he received many a kick or slap from mental patients.

As a St. John man, Mr. Prigmore was on duty in London in connection with King Edward VII’s delayed coronation procession and again for King George V’s coronation, when he received a special medal. He retired from the Brigade a few years ago.

For several years he has served on the Rushden Hospital Week Committee, and for 12 years he was caretaker of the Mission Church. Mrs. Prigmore has been a very helpful ally to her husband in his ambulance work.

The three children of the marriage are Mr. Edgar C. Prigmore, of Oakley-road, Rushden, who is actively connected with the Mission Cricket Club; Mr. Jack Prigmore, of Ivy-road, Northampton, and Mrs. Tompkins, of Rushden.