Roland and George Bradford were the only brothers in the Great War to be awarded the Victoria Cross. James and Thomas Bradford were also honoured for their courage, James being awarded the Military Cross and Thomas, the oldest of the brothers, the Distinguished Service Order.
George and Amy Bradford lost three of their sons in the war. Only Thomas survived, until his death in 1966, and for years Mrs Bradford would attend the Armistice Day service at Folkestone. The extraordinary story of the Fighting Bradfords, as they became known, has been put together by Stephen Shannon, curator of the Durham Light Infantry Museum. Thomas, James and Roland, the youngest, all served with the regiment. George joined the Royal Navy.
While all four showed their coolness and courage under fire, the brief military life of Roland Bradford is one of the most remarkable stories of the First World War. When he was killed in action at 25, he was a brigadier-general, the youngest general in the British Army.
Born near Bishop Auckland, he was a second lieutenant when the war began. The 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry (DLI), in which he served, landed at St Nazaire in France on September 10, 1914, and faced its first action ten days later at Troyon, when it suffered, in a few hours, atrocious casualties.
In February 1915 he won the Military Cross and in August 1916, after a number of rapid promotions, he was given command, as a temporary lieutenant-colonel, of the 9th Battalion DLI, a TA unit from Gateshead. In Beyond Praise, a booklet published by Durham County Council, Mr Shannon says: "During the next 16 months, Roland Bradford was to turn the battalion into one of the finest fighting units in the British Army."
He won his VC after being ordered to take command of the 6th Battalion DLI as well and advance towards the German lines as part of the 50th Division. They came under withering machinegun fire, but Colonel Bradford, then just 24, rallied his soldiers and led them forward to secure the flank. The citation recorded his "fearless energy" and "conspicuous bravery".
Twenty days after being given the command of 186th Brigade as a brigadier-general, he was killed by a stray German shell during the Battle of Cambrai on November 30, 1917.
George Bradford was awarded his VC posthumously for his bravery during the raid on Zeebrugge harbour on April 23, 1918. He was killed in action on his 31st birthday.
James Bradford won his MC during action in March 1917 at Gommecourt in France. He died when 27 after being wounded at Arras two months' later.
Thomas Bradford, who won the DSO, was badly wounded at Ypres in 1916. "He once said he felt he was the coward of the family because he survived the war" Mr Shannon says.
