Selected Biographies

Bond, Charles John – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 23.3.1885.[1]  Parents: John Bond (Flax Dresser) and Sarah Ann [née Snell] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Brother to William James Bond [b1880], Frederick Bond [b1884], Edmund Bond [b1887], Stanley Walter Bond [b1896] and Leonard Arthur Bond [b1901].  Home: St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1891 to 1911).  Occupation: Ostler and Backhouse Boy (1901), Blacksmith (1911).  Service Record: Charles was a member of the ‘C’ Company Band of 5^th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment [Territorial] in 1909 and 1911.[2]  It is not known if he saw service during the First World War as no definitive record has been found.

Bond, Edmund – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 5.10.1887.[3]  Parents: John Bond (Flax Dresser) and Sarah Ann [née Snell] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Brother to William James Bond [b1880], Frederick Bond [b1884], Charles John Bond [b1885], Stanley Walter Bond [b1896] and Leonard Arthur Bond [b1901].  Home: St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1891 to 1911), The Lodge, Kentwell Hall, Long Melford (1939).  Occupation: Gamekeeper’s Assistant (1901), Iron Moulder (1911 to 1939).  Married: Kate Winifred Pitt in 1929.  Service Record: Edmund is recorded as a member of the Melford Silver Band in 1914.[4]  He attested on 5.4.1914 as Pte.2010 with ‘D’ Company, 5^th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment [Territorial], reorganised after the outbreak of war as 1/5^th Battalion, Suffolks.  The Battalion was posted to Gallipoli from 10.8.1915 as part of 163^rd Brigade, 54^th [East Anglian] Division.  Within hours of landing his unit was moved forward into frontline trenches on the south face of a steep and rocky hill called Karakol Dagh.  At dawn two days later the Suffolks and the three other untested battalions of 163^rd Brigade were ordered to secure the heights to the east.  Advancing nearly a mile through a hail of Turkish artillery and machine gun fire, by the end of the day the enemy had been held at bay and a secure forward defence line established.  When Edmund and the other Melford men were finally relieved by fresh troops after three gruelling days, they were found in a sorry state, having baked under the searing heat they had run desperately short of drinking water and been plagued by swarms of flies attracted by the dead and dying around them. When the Roll was called it was found the Suffolks alone had lost 186 men either dead or wounded with a further 150 laid low by dysentery.   By December 1915 all British and Empire troops were evacuated to Egypt.  A local newspaper noted that as Cpl.240387, Bond was reported wounded; this was most probably while he was still stationed in Egypt.[5]  He appears to have remained on active service and if this assumption is correct, then from March 1917 he would have taken part in the invasion of Palestine, his battalion seeing action at the First, Second and Third Battles of Gaza, the Battle of Sharon, and the capture of Jerusalem.[6]  Edmund was promoted to Sergeant and on 17.4.1919 was issued with a Silver War Badge and discharged due to dysentery.[7]  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk in 1977.

Bond, Frederick – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 5.1.1884.[8]  Parents: John Bond (Flax Dresser) and Sarah Ann [née Snell] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Brother to William James Bond [b1880], Charles John Bond [b1885], Edmund Bond [b1887], Stanley Walter Bond [b1896] and Leonard Arthur Bond [b1901].  Home: St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1891 to 1911), Hall Street, Long Melford (1939).  Occupation: Baker (1901 to 1939).  Married: Sarah Rosie Land in 1911.  Service Record: Frederick was a member of the Long Melford Volunteer Training Corps in 1915.[9]  At the Melford Military Service Tribunal in June 1916 he was given a conditional exemption from conscription, in the following January he applied again for exemption, which this time was refused.  In April 1918 an earlier appeal made by the military representative for a revision of Bond’s certificate of exemption was granted, with the caveat that his medical examination passed him as fit to serve.[10]  The outcome may have been in the negative as in June he came before the panel again and was granted a further three months exemption.  It is not known if Bond’s certificate remained valid until the end of hostilities, however no definitive military record has been found to suggest otherwise.  Died: Colchester, Essex in 16.11.1963.[11]

Bond, Leonard Arthur – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 1.1.1901.[12]  John Bond (Flax Dresser) and Sarah Ann [née Snell] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Brother to William James Bond [b1880], Frederick Bond [b1884], Charles John Bond [b1885], Edmund Bond [b1887] and Stanley Walter Bond [b1896].  Home: St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1901, 1911), 7 Cornwall Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk (1939), 144 Norwich Road, Ipswich, Suffolk [1878].  Occupation: Butchery Manager for the Ipswich Cooperative Society (1939).  Married: Gladys May Smith in 1926.  Service Record: No definitive military record found.  Died: Ipswich, Suffolk on 22.7.1978.[13]

Bond, Stanley Walter – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 14.12.1896.[14]  Parents: John Bond (Flax Dresser) and Sarah Ann [née Snell] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Brother to William James Bond [b1880], Frederick Bond [b1884], Charles John Bond [b1885], Edmund Bond [b1887] and Leonard Arthur Bond [b1901].  Home: St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1901 and 1911), 87 High Street, Chesterton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire [1979].  Occupation: Gardener’s Lad (1911), London and North Eastern Railway Fire Dropper and ARP Warden (1939).  Married: Ruth Jessie Ward in 1926.  Service Record: Stanley enlisted in October 1914 as Pte.2618 with 1/5^th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, posted to Suvla Bay, Gallipoli from 10.8.1915 as part of 163^rd Brigade, 54^th [East Anglian] Division, being evacuated to Egypt in December 1915.[15]  He was issued with a new service number in 1917 and as Pte.241150 took part in the invasion of Palestine, seeing action at the First, Second and Third Battles of Gaza, the Battle of Sharon, and the capture of Jerusalem.[16]  Died: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire on 5.9.1979.[17]

Bond, William James – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 28.7.1880.[18]  Parents: John Bond (Flax Dresser) and Sarah Ann [née Snell] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Brother to Frederick Bond [b1884], Charles John Bond [b1885], Edmund Bond [b1887], Stanley Walter Bond [b1896] and Leonard Arthur Bond [b1901].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1881), St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1891), 9 Etna Road, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (1911), 160 Thoday Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (1939), The Stores, West Wratting, Cambridgeshire [1961].  Occupation: Fireman on the Great Eastern Railway (1911), London and North Eastern Railway Engine Driver (1939).  Married: Phoebe Elizabeth Miller in 1903.  Service Record: No definitive WWI records found.  Died: West Wratting, Cambridgeshire on 14.10.1961.[19]

Notes – [1] Date of birth from Baptism Register 3.5.1885, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford. [2] My thanks to Tim Seppings the archivist of the Melford Silver Band for this information. [3] Date of birth from the 1939 Register for Long Melford and the Death Index which both record it as 5.10.1887, however it is noted that Baptism Register 26.10.1887, St Catherines Mission Church, Long Melford records date as 5.4.1887. [4] My thanks to Tim Seppings of Sudbury for showing Edmund’s connection to the Melford Silver Band. [5] For notice of his wounding see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 10.1.1917. [6] For details of 1/5^th Suffolk’s time in Gallipoli and Palestine see War Diaries [WO 95/4325 and WO 95/4658] and Capt. A. Fair [mc] and Capt. E. D. Wolton [compiled by] “The Suffolk Regiment”: the history of the 1/5^th Battalion [London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1923], pp.13-107. [7] Service Medal and Award Rolls, First World War, Silver War Badge [WO 329] record [ref: 270555], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372]. [8] Date of birth from the 1939 Register for Long Melford, which also records spouse’s name, however no marriage record has been found. [9] For Training Corps article see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 29.12.1915. [10] For the Tribunal’s rulings see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 10.1.1917, 1.8.1917, 24.4.1918 and 26.6.1918. [11] Date of death from his grandson Anthony Bond. [12] Date of birth taken from the 1939 Register for Felixstowe. [13] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar. [14] Date of birth from the Baptism Register 18.2.1897, St Catherines Mission Church, Long Melford. [15] See the entry for his brother Edmund for an account of the Suffolk’s first days after stepping ashore in Gallipoli.  For details of 1/5^th Suffolk’s movements in Gallipoli and Palestine see War Diaries [WO 95/4325 and WO 95/4658] and Fair op. cit. [16] Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372]. [17] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar. [18] Date of birth taken from the 1939 Register for Cambridge. [19] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.