Collection BRADBURY - BRADBURY, Lt Col George Charles (1906-1995)

Lt Col G C Bradbury born 21 July 1906; served 6 years in ranks (1924-30); 2nd Lt 1930; Joined Indian Army 1931; Lt 1932; Capt 1938, Major 1946; served in 10th Baluch Regt, 1938-1947.

The 10th Baluch Regt: sprang from the old Bombay Army and its predecessors were freely used to sort out India's problems in and around the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. The senior battalion originated in the 2nd (Marine) Bn of the 12th Regt of Bombay Native Infantry raised in 1820. In 1838, as the 24th Regt of Bombay Native Infantry, they stormed Aden, bringing the Colony under the British flag. The 26th Bombay Native Infantry was raised in 1825 as the 2nd Extra Bn of Bombay Native Infantry, changing its name a year later. Sir Charles Napier raised two Regts in Karachi - the 1st and 2nd Belooch Regts - for local service within Sind in 1844 and 1846 respectively. The term 'local' was interpreted fairly loosely when it became necessary to send the 2nd Belooch to the Persian War in 1856-1857, a campaign frequently overshadowed by the events of the Great Mutiny in 1857. The 1st was in Karachi when the news of the insurrection reached the Commissioner. Sir Bartle Frere despatched them with all haste, on foot across the Sind desert in May to join the siege artillery train on its way to Delhi, the only Bombay unit to join the Delhi Field Force. The Regt was brought into the regular line for its services in Central India and it became the 27th Regt of Bombay Native Infantry in the post-Mutiny realignment. The 2nd Belooch, in the meantime, had qualified for a similar change in status for their work on the NW Frontier and became the 29th Regt of Bombay Native Infantry. In 1858, Major John Jacob raised a local battalion, soon to be known as Jacob's Rifles and they made such a reputation in and around Jacobabad that they, too, were accorded regular status, becoming the 30th Regt of Bombay Native Infantry or Jacob's Rifles in 1861. In World War I the Regt served in India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Muscat and Aden, France and East Africa. The 129th Battalion in the 3rd (Lahore) Division, was the only battalion of the Regt to serve on the Western Front, the first Indian Regt to attack the Germans, the first also on two other counts - to lose the first British officer and to earn the first Victoria Cross, this by Sepoy Khudadad Khan at Hollebeke. In the Second World War 16 Battalions served in India, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Malaya, Burma, Iraq, Italy, Palestine, Greece and Libya India, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Palestine.