Percy's Story.
Born in 1895 at Henbury, Macclesfield, son of basket maker, Alfred and Mary Ann Bradbury (nee Durrant), of 52 Broken Cross, Macclesfield. Alfred died in 1900, leaving Mary with three surviving children, Bertha Eveline, Percy and George. In 1901, six year old Percy was living at 127-129 Broken Cross with his widowed mother, who was working as a laundress, and siblings Bertha (13) and George (1). Later in 1901 Alfred's mother married again, to Frederick Washington Benton, and by 1911 Percy, aged 15 and employed in a boot factory, was living at 127 Broken Cross with his mother Mary, stepfather Fred, brother George (11) and half-brother William Benton (7).
Percy was educated at Broken Cross School, attaining standard grade VII, and on 27 September 1909, when employed as a telegram messenger boy, he enrolled at Macclesfield Technical School to further his education.
WW1 SERVICE
Percy attested very soon after the start of the war, on 11 August 1914, and was said to be the tallest recruit sent up from Macclesfield, being 6ft 2in tall. On completing the strict training regime at the Guards Depot, Percy was drafted to France on 23 May 1915.
The 3rd Battalion were in the 2nd Guards Brigade, Guards Division, and on the 13th October 1915, they moved from DROUVIN, and on the 15th they marched through VERMELLES to take up a line of trenches opposite BIG WILLIE and HOHENZOLLERN REDOUBT. The Battalion war diary relates the action on 17th October:
very heavy and accurate shelling from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m.by guns of all sizes. Captain Lord F. Blackwood was blown up by a shell and concussed………..The Btn was relieved by the 1st Btn Scots Guards and went into rest trenches behind VERMELLES railway (SUSSEX TRENCH), a smooth relief which finished at 2 a.m.
Percy was in the trenches during the shelling, and was reported missing afterwards. One year later he was presumed to have died on or after that date.
News of his death was reported in the Macclesfield Times of 13 October 1916. His death was confirmed after the end of the war and reported in the Macclesfield Times on 15 August 1919:
SOLDIER'S DEATH PRESUMED - Mrs Benton, 127 Broken Cross, near Macclesfield, has been informed... that her son, Pte Percy Bradbury, Grenadier Guards, has been presumed dead after having been posted missing since Oct 17th 1915. Pte Bradbury enlisted a week after the outbreak of war, and trained at Caterham in Surrey. From there he was sent to Chelsea Barracks and was drafted to France in May 1915. Pte Bradbury was 24 years of age and received his education at St Thomas's School, Broken Cross, and Christ Church School, Macclesfield. He was connected with Broken Cross Wesleyan Chapel and prior to enlisting was employed at the Macclesfield Slipper Works, Sunderland Street.
COMMEMORATION
Private Percy Bradbury has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial at Pas-de-Calais, France. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private Percy Bradbury, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War website.
Locally, Private Percy Bradbury is commemorated on the Macclesfield Park Green, Town Hall, St Michael's Church and Christ Church School war memorials, and on the Henbury and Broken Cross war memorial at St Thomas Church, Henbury.
Cheshire County Memorial Project would like to thank Harry Carlisle for this research on Percy.
Further research by Rosie Rowley, Congleton.