Strand Military Cemetery: Pauline Priano
Strand Military Cemetery: Pauline Priano
Thornaby Cemetery
In Thornaby-on-Tees Cemetery is the family headstone which reads;
In Loving Memory of
Serg’t WILL H. BRADLEY M.M.
1/5th D.L.I.
Died At Home April 25th 1921
Aged 27 Years
And
Pte J. TOM BRADLEY S. B. (Same Battalion)
Killed In Action At Armentieres
July 30th 1915, Aged 23 Years.
Beloved Sons Of
ROBERT J. & ANN BRADLEY.
Pte. J. T. Bradley was interred in
Strand Military Cemetery near Ypres.
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
John Thomas Bradley, affectionately known as Tom, one of 3 children all of whom survived, was the eldest of 2 brothers and had an elder sister. His father Robert John Bradley was born at Great Ayton, Yorkshire, where he was baptised November 18th 1855. Robert married at Great Ayton, September 22nd 1888, to Ann Norris native of Rosedale, Yorkshire, born 1863. They settled at Great Ayton where Robert was employed as a coal miner and daughter Sarah Jane was born in 1890, John Thomas 1892 but they had moved to Stokesley by the time William Henry was born in 1895. The family had transferred to 20, Roseberry Crescent by 1901 as Robert was now foreman/manager and they remained there for at least 20 years. In 1911 Robert was employed by a local quarry owner as a stone-breaker, John Thomas (19) was serving his apprenticeship as a joiner, William Henry (16) worked at a paper shop as an errand boy, Sarah Jane (21) assisted her mother at home.
When war was declared in 1914 Tom and his brother Will were still living at Thornaby, they enlisted at Stockton-upon-Tees, September 1914, assigned as Private 2538 J. T. Bradley and Private 2470 W. H. Bradley to the 5th Battalion Durham Light Infantry General Service then transferred to the 1st/5th Battalion of the Territorial Force battalion, trained for service overseas and departed April 17th 1915 to France, landing at Boulogne April 18th, attached to the 150th Brigade, 50th Northumbrian Division. Within days they were in the trenches of the Ypres salient in Belgium during the 2nd Battle of Ypres where they suffered heavy casualties April 26th at St. Julien and in May on the Frezenberg Line.
Attached to the 150th Brigade, 50th Northumbrian Division the regiment remained in the mud filled trenches at Armentieres and Kemmel until August 1916.
Private 2538 John Thomas Bradley was killed in action in the above mentioned sector, July 30th 1915 and initially buried in a small concentration at map reference Sh. 36. C. 27. b. 83, Epinette Road Cemetery, Houplines, France, a cross marking his grave bearing his name and military details.
After the Armistice at the request of the French and Belgian Governments smaller concentrations and isolated graves were brought into larger cemeteries. The remains of Private Bradley and several others were exhumed and brought into Strand Military Cemetery, 12.5 kilometres from Ypres, Belgium, January 2nd 1920 and re-buried with military honours. Private 2538 John Thomas Bradley Durham Light infantry is at rest grave IX. H. 2. At the time of his demise in 1915 he was 23 years old and single.
As his sole legitimate beneficiary his father Robert received all monies due to him from the Army, his effects and awards of the 1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal sent to him at 20, Roseberry Crescent, Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire. He commissioned at a cost of 8 shillings 5 pence an additional inscription to be added to his son’s military headstone, it reads, “Thornaby-On-Tees Till We Meet Again.”
Robert John Bradley died aged 62 years during the 1st quarter (Jan/Feb/Mar) 1918 unaware of the fate that would befall his son Sergeant William Henry Bradley M.M. He died, “at home” in England aged 27 years and single, April 25th 1921 and is at rest within Thonaby-on-Tees Cemetery, grave reference B.U.H.8. In place of a military headstone, his mother Ann Bradley nee Norris who died aged 72 years, May 23rd 1935, at Guisborough, North Riding, Yorkshire, raised a family headstone commemorating both sons.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
John Thomas Bradley is remembered at Stockton on Tees on S138.35 and at Thornaby on Tees on T70.01
He is also remembered in The DLI Book of Remembrance page 198
