George Hartley Bradbury

A Lieutenant with the 1/5th Battalion. George died on 18th of February 1921 and the age of 35.

George was born at Llanstadwell, Pembroke, in 1886 (note some sources state that he was born at Lowestoft but his Army enlistment, civil registration, and various census returns state Llanstadwell). He was a son of George and Ann Elizabeth Bradbury: his father was a fish merchant. In 1891 George's family lived at High Street, Llanstadwell. By 1901 they were living at 32 Milton Road, Lowestoft, and later his parents' address would be Tweedside, Milton Road. In 1911 George was living with his grandmother, Eliza Hartley, at 5 High Street, Neyland, Pembroke. 

George married Marion Alexander at West U.F. Church, Fraserburgh, on 5 October 1912. Marion's father was the Burgh Surveyor at Fraserburgh. After George's father died, he took charge of the family business' branches in the north of Scotland. George and Marion lived at 'Belmont', Strichen Road, Fraserburgh. 

George enlisted in the Army, at Milford Haven, on 11 December 1915. He stated that he was a fish merchant. He was commissioned in the York and Lancaster Regiment in August 1917 and served in France, with the 1/5th Battalion, from 6 December 1917. 

At the beginning of the German offensive in March 1918 George was in Paris at a school of instruction. He returned to his battalion and, on 11 April 1918, received severe gunshot wounds to his limbs. 

On 11 April George's battalion were ordered to make at attack near Steenwerk. In the attack the battalion lost 17 officers, killed or wounded, and sustained over 200 casualties among the other ranks: effectively the battalion lost over half its men.  

George was sent to hospital at Etaples and was there when the hospital was bombed. Later he was transferred to England and underwent treatment at the Duchess of Westminster Hospital, Guy's Hospital and at a hospital in Brighton. Such was the nature of his wounds that George was unable to leave hospital and had to undergo 23 operations. 

He was allowed home, to visit his family at Fraserburgh, but was suddenly taken ill and removed to a nursing home in Aberdeen where he died. His body was taken to the railway station at Aberdeen by a detachment of men from the Gordon Highlanders accompanied by their pipers who played 'The Flowers of the Forest.' 

Marion died in 1927. 

George's brother Albert also died in the war.