On this day in 1918, Benjamin Arthur Bradford (1889-1918) was killed in one of the final battles of the Great War – just over two months before the Armistice.
Benjamin, a private in the 16th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, lost his life in the Second Battle of Bapaume on the Western Front on September 2, 1918. He was 29.
Benjamin enlisted in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire in June 1916, initially serving in the 9th, 16th and 2/7th Battalions of the Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment.
He went to France in October 1916.
He is commemorated at Vaulx Hill Cemetery, near Bapaume and remembered on Gainsborough War Memorial.
Paul Roberts
NOTES
Benjamin was the son of Daniel Bradford (1849-1895) and Sarah Ann Draper (1861-1937). Daniel was a brother of Eliza Bradford (1854-1945), who married Daniel Arscott (1857-1922) in Lewisham, Kent on January 14, 1901. Daniel was my great-grandfather.
Born in 1889 in Gainsborough, Benjamin was a boiler maker’s labourer in 1911, living with his family in Gainsborough. He married Florence Turtle (1893-1918) in 1912 in Gainsborough. Florence, born in 1893 in Gainsborough, was just 24 when she died on November 8, 1918 – just over two months after Benjamin lost his life.
One of Benjamin and Florence’s sons, Cyril was just one when he died just a few days before Florence. He was buried on the day she died.
Picture below
Vaulx Hill Cemetery where Benjamin is commemorated. Picture taken on September 9, 2018 by Rene Hourdry (CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vaulx_Cimeti%C3%A8re_2.jpg