I am thrilled to have been sent photographs of Albert Padgham and William Padgham in their army uniforms. The two brothers were amongst the youngest of Chailey's men to serve their King and Country.
Albert was in khaki probably just before war was declared and would have been seventeen or eighteen years old (it's possible that he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment on his eighteenth birthday). His brother William who was a couple of years younger than Albert, appears to have joined the army in late 1916 and served with the Royal Field Artillery.
Albert (pictured left), died of wounds in 1916 at the age of 19 and is buried in France. His brother William, survived. Today their young faces staring out of sepia tinted photographs recall the sacrifice of their generation.
I am delighted to be able to add Albert's and William's faces to the growing visual roll-call of Chailey's men and women and I am indebted to David Gordon, grandson of another Chailey veteran, Leonard Preston Gordon, for sending me these images and allowing me to reproduce these.
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