Edward Bradbury

Captain Edward Kinder Bradbury was born on 16 August 1881, and was first and foremost a soldier.

His passion away from the battlefield was racing and, in the Royal Artillery Gold Cup at Sandown in 1909, he finished third on his own horse, Sloppy Weather. He rode in a number of Military races, once finishing third at the 1911 Punchestown Festival on Hot Water.

He died in battle on September 1, 1914, and was posthumously awarded the V.C. He was 33.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Edward's story - kindly sent in by Derek Gay - is worth the telling.

He attended the Royal Military College at Woolwich and, after passing out, joined the Royal Artillery in 1900 as a 2nd Lieutenant and saw service at the second Boer was with the Imperial Yeomanry.

After serving at the Foreign Office he returned to a regimental post in 1907 where he gained a captaincy in 1910.

He went to the front at the outbreak of war with the RFA I charge of L Battery.

On the morning of September 1st, 1914, the battery was camped near a little village in France called Nery. As the mist cleared, they came under heavy bombardment from German guns.

Within a couple of minutes, all the horses had been killed or maimed and a number of men wiped out.

Edward and three Lieutenants tried to get their guns into action but only succeeded in getting his own working.

Early in the exchange, a shell blew Edward's leg off, but he still insisted on directing fire. Two of his lieutenants were killed; a third also lost a leg, dying shortly after.

Edward refused to give in and was killed when another shell struck him.

The German guns were eventually repelled and silence as machine gunners from the Queen's Bays and I Battery arrived.

Three VC's and two DCM's were won during the skirmish.