1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Albert is on the left,
seen here with his brother Henry Jacob
Albert Charles Brading was born in Gloucester in 1887, the third of ten children, to George Henry and Ann Brading. By 1901 the family had moved to Hinton near Sharpness. When he was older Albert worked as a farm labourer on Old Hurst Farm and was also a reservist with the Gloucestershire Regiment. By the time of the 1911 census he was serving with the Army in Malta. The Bradings were a military family. Albert’s father, George, had served as a bombardier in the Royal Artillery and three of his brothers also served in the First World War, two of whom survived.
On 6 August 1913 Albert married Prudence Ellen Mary Taylor in Cirencester. Albert was killed in action in one of the Hirst large engagements of the war, the First Battle of the Aisne. The battle took place between 13 and 28 September and the British casualties were 13,541 killed or wounded.
Albert died on 16 September 1914, aged 27. He has no known grave but he is commemorated on
the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial which bears the inscription: To the glory of God and the lasting memory of 3,888 British officers and men whose graves are not known who landed in France in the month of August 1914 and between then and October fought at Mons and Le Cateau and on the Marne and the Aisne.
Albert, together with his brother Jacob who was killed in action on 9 May 1915, is also commemorated on the Berkeley Roll of Honour and on the Slimbridge War Memorial. Prudence received news of Albert’s death on her 21st birthday; sadly she lost the child she was carrying at the time.
Extract from Slimbridge Remembers