B17334 Rifleman Melville Emerson Prentice was born in Greenview, Ontario, on 11 October 1918, the son of George Samuel Prentice and Mary Etta Lavoy. He had four sisters and three younger brothers; the family were members of the United Church of Canada. He enjoyed baseball, softball, swimming and track and field, and completed part of Grade 8 before leaving to help on the home farm.

Prentice had previously farmed and done construction work but was employed as a bus driver when he enrolled in North Bay for his compulsory training on 20 March 1941.  He trained at Camp Borden before being attached to various anti-aircraft batteries.

On 6 March 1942, he transferred to the active service army and qualified as a driver for wheeled vehicles on 4 April. He continued training and various attachments in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On 20 September 1943, he reported for duty in the United Kingdom and was remustered to the Infantry Corps.  He landed on D-Day, 6 June 1944, with the Canadian Scottish Regiment and two days later he was posted to The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. Prentice received a shrapnel wound and fracture in his hand on the next day and was sent back to a hospital in the UK.

On 16 September 1944, he returned to France and by 8 November was back with the QOR. Over the next several months he was sent on various attachments before returning once again to the QOR on 21 March 1945.

Rifleman Prentice was killed in action in the Netherlands on 2 April 1945, aged 26. He is buried in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, grave reference XXII. D. 1. His family had the following engraved on his marker”

WE CANNOT, LORD,
THY PURPOSE
SEE BUT ALL IS WELL
THAT’S DONE BY THEE