ERNEST ALFRED BRADBURY
Commemorated on three WW1 Memorials in Portsmouth Ernest Alfred, together with his family, did not arrive in the town until the late 1890s. For the previous ten to fifteen years they had been living near Swindon.
Ernest Alfred's father Joseph had been born at Bristol in 1848 and married his wife Emily around 1885. Documentary evidence of the marriage is inconclusive but the birth of their children in Swindon is more certain. They were Arthur (b. 1886), Ernest Alfred (b. 1887), Adelaide (b. 1890), William (b. 1892) and Dorothy (b. 1894).
It's not known what brought the family to Portsmouth as Joseph was a retired shoe maker living on his own means with no need to seek employment. They must have been quite well off as their first choice of a home was at 27 Hampshire Terrace. They were also able to send Ernest Alfred to Portsmouth Grammar School, though only for a couple of years in 1900-1901.
The 1911 census shows the family still at Hampshire Terrace though both Ernest Alfred and his elder brother Arthur had left home. In Ernest Alfred's case he had probably left to join the Gloucestershire Regiment and may have been serving overseas in 1911 as he does not appear in the census. After the outbreak of the Great War Ernest Bradbury was serving as a Second Lieutenant and though details of his wartime experiences are currently unknown the CWGC record places him in the Pas de Calais where he probably took part in the Battle of Arras. He died, probably from injuries received, on 2nd May 1917 at the 6th Casualty Clearing Station close to the cemetery at Barlin where he was buried.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) list Ernest Alfred Bradbury Second Lieutenant, Gloucestershire Regiment, died 02/05/1917, aged 29. Buried at Barlin Communal Cemetery Extension (Grave Ref: II.A.6.). Son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Bradbury, of Southsea.
Ernest Bradbury is commemorated on the St. John's RC Cathedral World War Memorial, the WW1 Memorial at Portsmouth Grammar School and the Cenotaph, in Guildhall Square, Portsmouth. He is not listed in "The National Roll of the Great War", Section X.
Tim Backhouse
December 2014