Alec Bromfield: The Young Gunner of Royal Field Artillery

Gunner Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield, 2173, Royal Field Artillery, died aged just seventeen at Writtle, Essex, on 26 May 1915 while serving with the 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade, Territorial Force.

Family report, casualty listings, and brigade history

Early Life and Family

Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield was born on 14 October 1897 at Westbury on Trym, Gloucestershire, his birth being registered in the Barton Regis district.[file:152] He was the son of William Samuel Bromfield and Annie Jane Bromfield, and he was baptised on 12 December 1897 at St Mary Magdalene, Stoke Bishop.[file:152] By the 1901 census he was living at Stoke Farm, Westbury upon Trym, placing him firmly within the rural and semi-rural world on the northern edge of Bristol.[file:152]

In the 1911 census Alec was recorded at Kings Weston near Shirehampton, working as a “Boy in Gardens Domestic”.[file:152] This occupation suggests he was employed in estate or domestic gardening, a common form of youthful service work in the large house environments of the Bristol district.[file:152] The parish note quoted in the family report remembered him as a former pupil in the local schools and described him as “always a good fellow, well-mannered, and a credit to his home and parish”, an unusually warm contemporary tribute that helps restore his character beyond the bare facts of the record.[file:152]

Military Service

Alec enlisted at Gloucester in 1915 and served as Gunner 2173 in the Royal Field Artillery.[file:152] His unit is given as the 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade, Territorial Force, a second-line brigade raised after the outbreak of war from the same regional structure as the original South Midland artillery formations.[file:152][web:158] The Imperial War Museums’ Lives of the First World War index similarly identifies him as “Alec Edward Joseph Bromfield”, Gunner 2173, Royal Field Artillery, 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade, confirming the broad outline of his service.[web:154]

The 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade was part of the artillery associated with the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division, formed as the second-line Territorial counterpart to the 48th (South Midland) Division.[web:158] It was originally composed of Brigade Headquarters, the 2/1, 2/2 and 2/3 Gloucestershire Batteries, and its brigade ammunition column, making it a formation with a strong Gloucestershire identity that would have been highly familiar to a young recruit from the Bristol area.[web:158] This local character helps explain Alec’s enlistment into the brigade and places him within a distinctly regional military community.[file:152][web:158]

Unit Context at the Time of Death

The most important military context for Alec’s death is that the 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade was still in training in England in May 1915 and had not yet gone overseas.[web:158] The Long, Long Trail records that the brigade trained at Northampton, Broomfield and Writtle, both near Chelmsford, before moving on to Epping later in July 1915.[web:158] Alec’s death at Writtle on 26 May 1915 therefore occurred while the brigade was in one of its Essex training camps during its formative period.[file:152][web:158]

This is an important distinction, because Alec was not killed in action abroad but died while serving at home with a newly raised Territorial artillery brigade that was still learning its trade.[file:152][web:158] In 1914 and 1915 many second-line artillery units were short of equipment and modern guns, often training under improvised conditions while building up men, horses, transport and gunnery skills.[web:158] The brigade history notes that these formations were initially deficient in key arms and equipment and relied for a time on old French and obsolete British guns for training, which helps convey the makeshift atmosphere of early-war preparation.[web:158]

The family report and parish magazine make clear that Alec’s death was accidental rather than combat-related.[file:152] The vicar of Henbury wrote in May 1915 that Alec “seems to have gone bathing with a comrade when he lost his life”, and the report summarises the event plainly as “ALEC BROMFIELD DROWNED May 1915”.[file:152] Thus, the military unit context at the time of death is that of a teenage gunner in training camp, attached to a Gloucestershire Territorial artillery brigade in Essex, whose life was cut short in an off-duty drowning before he could serve overseas.[file:152][web:158]

Alec Bromfield’s story is a reminder that wartime service claimed lives not only on the battlefield, but also in the training camps where Britain’s new Territorial units were being hastily prepared for war.

Family report and brigade training history

Circumstances of Death

Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield died on 26 May 1915 at Writtle, Essex, aged only seventeen.[file:152] The family report states that he died at home service, and the Henbury Parish Magazine War Diary gives the crucial detail that he drowned while bathing with a comrade during his time at camp in Essex.[file:152] This contemporary local testimony carries particular weight because it comes from the parish that knew him and recorded his loss almost immediately.[file:152]

The vicar’s notice also records that a military funeral would be held in the churchyard on the Sunday following the news of his death.[file:152] That detail shows how quickly the army and local parish moved to commemorate him, and it hints at the shock felt in Henbury at the loss of so young a soldier before he had ever reached the front.[file:152] Casualty aggregators likewise record him simply as Gunner Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield, Royal Field Artillery, date of death 26 May 1915, confirming the official recognition of his death in service.[web:153][web:159]

Burial and Commemoration

Alec was buried in Henbury (St Mary) Churchyard Extension, Gloucestershire, in grave reference 1284 near the south-west corner of the churchyard.[file:152] His burial in his home parish, rather than in a distant military cemetery, reflects the fact that he died in Britain and that his body could be returned home for interment.[file:152] It also gave his family and community a local place of mourning, unlike so many later war graves overseas.[file:152]

The family report notes his entitlement to the 1914–15 Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal and Memorial Death Plaque.[file:152] These awards confirm that, despite his brief service and death before active overseas campaigning, he was formally commemorated as a soldier who had given his life in wartime service.[file:152] His memory also survives in modern casualty listings and remembrance databases, which continue to record him under the Royal Field Artillery and his South Midland brigade connection.[web:153][web:154]

Legacy

Alec’s story is especially poignant because he died before he could grow into adulthood, let alone marriage or parenthood, and the report records no spouse and no children.[file:152] His life moved from the villages and estates around Westbury on Trym and Henbury into military service at the age when most young men were only beginning adult working life.[file:152] The report identifies him as a second cousin twice removed to the researcher, which means his memory survives not only in military records but as part of an extended family narrative still being actively preserved.[file:152]

Sources and Further Reading

• Compiled family report: Individual Report for Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield.[file:152]
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield.[file:152]
• The Long, Long Trail: 305, 306, 307 and 308 Brigades of the Royal Field Artillery, 61st Divisional Artillery.[web:158]
• A Street Near You: casualties for 26 May 1915, including Gunner Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield.[web:153]
• Imperial War Museums, Lives of the First World War: Bromfield search entry.[web:154]
• Bristol Gunners: 240 Brigade WWI Nominal Roll, for wider South Midland and Gloucestershire artillery context.[web:164]