Rifleman Alfred John Stanley Bruton
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Rifleman Alfred John Stanley Bruton, C/1669, 17th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps, was killed in action on the Somme on October 21st, 1916. He was aged 24.
He was the second of the two sons of Alfred John and Sarah Jane Bruton, of East Hyde Mill Cottage, New Mill End, to lose his life on active service. Younger brother Rifleman Augustus Tennyson Bruton died in the Lord Derby War Hospital, Warrington, Lancs, on April 10th, 1916, from wounds sustained accidentally in a bomb-throwing accident.
Stanley Bruton had joined the colours in December 1915, prior to which he was employed by Mr L. Weekes, of Harpenden. He had been a member of the East Hyde church choir and its Sunday School.
A letter Cpl D. R. Wilson to Mrs Bruton said: "Stanley was killed in action. The Germans got into our sap, and the Lewis gun was out of action. He ran round with two more men and fought the Boches with his sword. He killed one man, and then was killed himself. He was very brave, and was one of the few that saved the trench that day. Stanley was always a very good man with the machine gun."
A memorial service was held at East Hyde, where Stanley's brother was buried in the churchyard. Stanley is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme and on the gravestone of his parents and brother at East Hyde.
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