[1][2] He was considered by Wisden as a fine, aggressive schoolboy batsman with "excellent style", as well as a good fielder[1] and played for the public schools side against MCC at Lord's.
[2] Prest joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment at the start of World War I and had been commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant by the end of 1914.
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.
[8] At the start of World War II he rejoined the army, serving as a lieutenant with a home defence battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment.
[2] He was a keen golfer and played for Seaford, the Oxford and Cambridge Society and the Royal Worlington and Newmarket clubs.