Albert George Bradley was the fourth child of Amos and Mary Ann Bradley and was born on the 18th April 1896. Amos was a Bricklayer and a local preacher who died in 1900 when Albert was just 3 years old.  The 1901 census shows Mary Ann working as a Charwoman and living at the corner of Stratford Road and Husbandman’s End (now Station Road), Shipston-on-Stour. Albert’s older siblings were Joseph, Ann, Lily, Ethel, and Amos. He also had a younger brother Ernest. 

It is not known when he joined the Infants School, as the records no longer exist. However it is known that Albert Bradley transferred from the Infants to Boys School on the 1st July 1902 when he was 6 years old. The School Log does not record when he left school, but it would probably have been sometime after his thirteenth birthday. Interestingly the Log records Mary’s occupation as Shepherd.

The 1st King’s Royal Rifle Corps arrived at Rouen in France on the 11th August 1914 and moved by train or marching to Mons. Here they came under fire for the first time on the 23rd August when they had hardly taken up position. The next morning the “Retreat from Mons” began. They retreated until the 5th September when they stopped, turned, and the following morning attacked the Germans on the Marne. After a four-day battle, during which they inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, they advanced to the River Aisne where again they distinguished themselves.  On the 26th and 27th October they were involved in heavy fighting and a counter-attack and their losses were heavy, but nothing compared to what was to come. The Regimental History records that on the 2nd November most of B, C and D companies faced a “furious onslaught of greatly superior numbers” and were surrounded. It also records that “they maintained a desperate fight, but were never seen again”. At this point the original Battalion as it had left Aldershot ceased to exist having lost 1,037 men.  

After enlisting in Warwick in the early days of the war, Albert Bradley arrived in France on the 29th November 1914 as a replacement for some of the men lost in those early battles.  He arrived at the Battalion on the 30th November 1914 along with 371 Officers, NCOs and Riflemen and by the 23rd December the re-formed Battalion was back in the front line. On the 1st March 1915 the Battalion war diary notes that at about 7:30am H.R.H. The Prince of Wales walked around the trenches being held at Givenchy. The following days were spent preparing for the British Army’s first major offensive of 1915, the Battle of Neuve Chappelle.

On the 10th March 1915 two artillery barrages preceded the attack, one starting at 7:30am and lasting for ten minutes; the second started at 7:50am, both designed to cut the enemy wire.  After twenty minutes this barrage lengthened its range and the attack began.   After rushing 170 yards to the enemy wire the men found that it had not been breached and they suffered heavy casualties under the fire of the German rifles and machine guns.  Despite sending in reserves only a small number of men on the left actually managed to continue the attack into the enemy trenches. The resilience of the enemy wire under artillery barrage was responsible for the failure of the attack.  The war diary notes:

“both of the assaulting parties started at exactly the right moment, followed out their orders perfectly and if gallantry and determination could have commanded success it would have been theirs. No more gallant exploit could be seen.

Notwithstanding the heavy rifle and cross machine gun fire they rushed on and those who got near the wire were unable to get through as nowhere had it been breached.”

During the day the Battalion had lost 161 Officers and Men killed or missing and 94 wounded. Sadly Albert had been killed and his body was never found. In early May 1915 the Stratford Herald reported:

Recently Mrs A. Bradley of Stratford Road Shipston received a notification from the War Office that one of her sons Rifleman A. Bradley of the Kings Royal Rifles was posted as missing and was believed to be killed. The War Office was communicated with and a reply was received to the effect that enquiries were being made through the American Embassy as to whether or not Pte Bradley was a prisoner in Germany. Sympathy is felt for Mrs Bradley, who is a widow, and has another son in Lord Kitchener`s army who is presently lying ill in hospital in the Isle of Wight.  Mrs Bradley’s eldest son, who is a Sgt Major in the Princess Patricia`s Canadian contingent has recently been invalided home suffering from frostbite, but has recently rejoined. He had 15 years active service with Kings Royal Rifles in various parts of the world, going through the South African campaign and was severely wounded in the head in West Africa. Rifleman Bradley’s 19th birthday was on April 14th.

A similar report also appeared in the Evesham Journal. Albert Bradley is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial and he is remembered on both the Town and the Council School Memorials.

remembered on both the Town and the Council School Memorials.

Mike Wells