Thornaby Cemetery
The headstone 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:-
William Bradley, affectionately known as Will, one of 3 children, was the youngest of his siblings. 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 William Henry was living at Thornaby, he enlisted at Stockton-on-Tees, September 19th 1914, as did his brother Tom, assigned as Private 2740 W. H. Bradley and Private 2538 J. T. Bradley to the 5th Battalion Durham Light Infantry General Service, then transferred to the 1/5th Battalion of the Territorial Force, January 5th 1916, trained for overseas service 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. Will would have been made aware of his brother Private John Thomas Bradley’s death on June 30th 1915.
As relevant pages of his service history are missing it is impossible to know whether Private W. H. Bradley was wounded, gassed or ill during his service, he was also posted for a brief time to the 7th Battalion, however both were part of the same division.
The 1/5th D.L.I. as of September 1916 moved north to the battlefields of the Somme participating in the final engagements in the sector and suffered heavy losses at Prue Trench near High Wood.
During 1917 with a change of service number to 295040 Private Bradley fought during the Arras Offensive in France, April 9th-May 15th and at the Third Battle of Ypres during October-November before returning to the Somme when the Germans attacked again on that front March 21st 1918. The battalion was driven back by the Germans and once again sustained many casualties and a few months later were almost destroyed during fighting on the River Aisne. The surviving soldiers were sent to other battalions and the 1/5th Battalion Durham Light Infantry was disbanded in France on November 9th 1918 just prior to the Armistice of November 11th when the guns finally fell silent.
During 1917 to 1918 Private Bradley had risen rapidly through the ranks and as of December 8th 1918 had been confirmed as Sergeant, having returned to England was discharged at Ripon Camp, March 8th 1919 and transferred to Class Z, free to return to civilian life but under the obligation of returning to the colours should hostilities with Germany resume. This was abolished with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, June 28th 1919 which brought WW1 officially to a close. His service was recognised with the awards of the 1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, Memorial Roll and Plaque, he was also the recipient of the Military Medal awarded to personnel of the British Forces for bravery in battle on land. The deterioration of his medical condition afforded him a pension of 14 shillings a week as of February 20th 1920 and due for revue May 3rd 1921.
It should be noted that some of the pages of Sergeant Bradley’s war record have in error been filed with 2 pages belonging to Corporal 295039 George Bellas Durham Light Infantry, amongst the missing of May 27th 1918, commemorated on the Soissons Memorial, France, age at enlistment 19 years and should therefore be disregarded.
The death of Ex-Sergeant 295040 William Henry Bradley M. M., April 25th 1921, aged 27 years and single, cause phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis), was preceded by that of his father Robert John Bradley, aged 62 years during the first quarter (Jan/Feb/Mar) 1918. With the death of both his sons this branch of the Bradley family ceased to exist.
Ex Sergeant Bradley is at rest within Thornaby-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. William Henry Bradley is considered by the CWGC as a casualty of war.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
William Henry Bradley is remembered at Stockton on Tees on S138.35 and at Thornaby on Tees on T70.01
