The Four Baldry Brothers

The Baldry brothers went off to war in 1915 to do their bit for their king and country like so many families up and down Britain.

The tragedy would  be four Lowestoft brothers, humble painters and decorators signed up after the eldest had initially been rejected a couple of months before. But sadly only one would return alive, Alfred Baldry, my great grandfather.  His story and survival would continue to torture him long after he returned home to Lowestoft in 1918. The brothers would be placed in different battalions initially all heading to the battlefields of France. Alfred was a gunner for the British Expeditionary Force, by the end of 1915 two brothers were already dead. Alfred was then sent to Egypt in 1916 to defend the Suez canal and attack the ottoman empire in Palestine. 

He was injured in an explosion which burst his eardrum and then the sand that got into the ear and eye left his eyelid paralysed so he never shut it, always sleeping with one eye open his children would say.

On his discharge he was broken by the news that all of his brothers had perished on the battlefields and made a vow that if he could, he would save up enough money as he returned to civilian life as Painter to try and track them down. The photo enclosed he did make it eventually only to find one Henry, affectionately known as Harry and with whom he had named his eldest child. My Grandad said in his later life there were times Alfred couldn't sleep screaming out at night reliving the trauma that so many had faced and would then be found sitting in his armchair the next morning.

By Kevin Barnard