1914-1918 First World War Centenary

Thomas William McKenzie Bradley was born on 3 July 1896, the only son of Augusta Lucy and William McKenzie Bradley.  He was baptised on 15 October of that year at Meopham Church in Kent. The family had previously lived at Littleham in Devon (1891 census), when his father (then age 39) was listed as a retired East India Merchant.  His mother had been born in India. The family surname is recorded as McKenzie Bradley in the 1891 census but as Bradley elsewhere.

The family moved several times: an older sister Lucy, had been born in India in 1896, and Mary in Exmouth in 1895,.  By the time of the 1911 census his parents, now in their 50s, were living at 42 Alexandra Road Upper Norwood, South London.

Former Charterhouse pupil, Thomas Bradley entered Harper Adams Agricultural College on 7 October 1912, aged 16, to study the Agricultural Diploma course and left on 18 July 1914.  His proposed career was listed in the register as “farming, home or abroad”.

A photograph may be seen here:

http://charterhousewarmemorial.org.uk/RollofHonour.aspx?RecID=77&TableName=ta_factfile&BrowseID=140

He served with the 110th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (Service Number 74111) and was killed in action on 21 March 1918. His name is listed on the St Bartholomews War Memorial, Horley, Surrey, where his parents were living at the time.   

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/741835/bradley,-thomas-william-mckenzie/

He is remembered with honour at the Arras Memorial (Bay 1)

The Arras Memorial commemorates nearly 35,000 soldiers of the British, South African and New Zealand forces with no known grave.

https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-cemeteries-and-memorials/82700/arras-memorial