London 1/25th Regt - Albert William BUCKLEY

Medal card : Pte. - 25th London Regt. No.s : 2839 & 741241. India General Service Medal Afghan 1919.
1/25th Regt. Address Book - 'A' Coy. - 41 Bomore Rd, Notting Hill, W.

Henry was also in the 7th City of London Battalion at some stage, almost certainly before joining the 25th Londons. His photo collection includes 2 photos of the 7th Londons, one of which contains Henry with the 7th London hat badge.

He subsequently joined the 25th Londons prior to their embarkation for India in 1916. He would have seen action in the Waziristan campaign of 1917, and as he received the India General Service Medal he also took part in the 3rd Afghan war in 1919.

His photo collection also includes a photo entitled "Landing troops at Salonica". As neither the 7th nor 25th Londons served in Salonika this photo is a bit of a mystery. Possiblities are that Henry also served in another battalion at some stage, or the troop ships to and from India stopped there to land troops.

More Photos

Henry was born 2 Aug 1893 at 41 Bomore Road Kensington London, the 8th of 13 children though he was only the 3rd to survive infancy. His parents ran a laundry that dealt with the white uniforms to 'Whitley's' store in London up to amongst others. Henry used to deliver them on a bike.

His parents then had another 4 children that died as babies or very young and then his youngest brother survived so of their 13 children they only had 4 who lived to become adults and 2 of them went to war, thankfully both survived though Henry's brother Frederick died in 1924 and we believe it had something to do with the injuries he sustained.

When he was very young he had a tracheotomy which in those days was often not survived but Henry did, he was always known as "Doll" which makes us think he was possibly a small child though obviously a fighter!

He joined the post office as a telegraph boy when he left school, he must have ridden a bike then as well, we don't know the exact date but then went on to join the 25th London Regiment (Cyclists!) as far as we know in 1916, his numbers were 2839 and 741241 and he was in A Company. Unfortunately his detailed records do not survive but his "intended" Ethel Mclachlan had a baby daughter in April 1917 when he was in India so we assume he went away before she knew she was pregnant otherwise they would have married before he went.

We know very little of his time in India except that he was away until the end of 1919. He married as soon as he could when he got back on the 27 Dec 1919 at the Kensington Registry office.

From his photos he must have landed at Salonika and served in Subarhu in 1918 and done some training at Fullinder but there is no date on those.

All I remember him ever saying was when anyone mentioned the 1914-1918 war he would state "it went on till 1919, my medals prove it" I have those medals and sure enough they have 1919 on them.

In his photos you can tell him as he always had his hankie up his sleeve, did that all his life!

After he returned he went back to the Post Office and worked for the all his life till his retirement.

He died on 23rd March 1984 at 42 Stanstead Road Hertford at the age of 90, he did dearly want to live to 100 but I am afraid he didn't make it.

Kindly supplied by Marilyn Taylor -