Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
John James Bradley, one of 9 children of whom only 8 survived, was the eldest of 5 sons and had 1 elder and 2 younger sisters. His father Henry Bradley, native of Thornley, County Durham, born April 15th 1869, married in the district of Bishop Auckland in 1890 to Rose Mint Hird born 1970 at Gilling, near Richmond, Yorkshire, whose family had moved to the Bishop Auckland area by 1873. In 1891 they were living with his parents and siblings at 111, First Cross Block, Old Park, Binchester, with their 3 month old daughter Sarah Ann. Both he and his father John were employed as coal miners. John James was born in 1892 only a few months before the death of his sister Sarah Ann, aged 2. His parents had a further 3 children by 1901, Mary Jane born 1895, Joseph 1897 and Henry July 4th 1899. By then they were living at Church Street, Byers Green, and over the next ten years the family grew with the birth of Charles 1902, Hilda 1904, Willie 1906 and Sarah 1909. By 1911 they had moved into 7 rooms at Front Street, Catchgate, Durham, in all there were 9 males and 6 females as they had also taken into their home as lodgers 66-year-old peddler Joseph Ridley, coal miner 29-year-old George Magen, 28-year-old coal miner John Thomas Simpson, his wife Maggie and 1 year old daughter Florrie. John James, now 18 years old was employed as a putter, his brother Joseph (14) as a pony driver, they had joined their father at the colliery who was working as a stoneman.
When war was declared in 1914 the Bradley family were living at Tow Law, County Durham, John James enlisted at Consett, assigned as Private 4105 to the Durham Light Infantry, joining his regiment at their barracks at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland. He was transferred to the 1/8th Battalion and posted to the coastal defences between Roker and Whitburn, over the next 9 months the new recruits were also trained for full-time service overseas.
The battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Turnbull of Chester-le-Street, departed from Newcastle station bound for France, April 19th 1915 and within days without any nursery training were sent to Belgium into the trenches on the Ypres salient during the 2nd Battle of Ypres where they suffered heavy casualties under shell fire and gas attacks on the Gravenstafel Ridge and at Boetleer’s farm. As part of the 151st Brigade, 50th Northumbrian Division they served until August 1916 in the trenches of the Ypres salient, Armentieres and Kemmel.
Wounded in the line of duty Private Bradley was evacuated back through the lines by the Field Ambulance until he was admitted to the 3rd Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne-sur-Mer, where he could, if necessary, have been evacuated by ship back to England. Private 4105 John James Bradley Durham Light Infantry succumbed to wounds sustained, March 16th 1916 and interred at Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, grave VIII. D. 78. The headstones in this cemetery are laid flat due to the sandy soil.
His father Henry received all monies due to him and his awards of the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal sent to him at 1, Office Row, Hedley Hope, Tow Law, County Durham. He commissioned at a cost of 13 shillings 1 pence an additional inscription to be added to his son’s military headstone, it reads, “Ever Remembered By Father & Mother Sisters & Brothers.” Private Bradley was 23 years of age and single.
Rose Mint Bradley nee Hird died in 1926 aged 56 years, Henry listed as a pensioner living by own means, was living in 1939 at 9, Newhouse Avenue, Brandon and Byshottles, County Durham, the home of his 3rd born son Henry Jnr an overman at the colliery, his wife Margaret born November 3rd 1901 and their son Terence born April 19th 1926, a scholar. Henry Bradley died in about 1944.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
John James Bradley is remembered at Satley on S116.01 and at Tow Law on T57.01
He is also remembered in The DLI Book of Remembrance page 51
