"The Riflemen Are Coming, From Hadleigh & From Eye..."

​As Christmas passed and the New Year arrived in the small market town of Hadleigh, the full extent of the town's loss the previous year became apparent.
The majority of those who departed for war the previous year, were pre-war members of the 5th (Territorial) Battalion.
During the initial attacks at Gallipoli, the town lost no fewer than 15 men; almost 20% of the total number of men who had left from the town and its satellite town of Bildeston, for annual camp in Norfolk just over a year before. Of the 73 men who mustered for camp at Holkham, 15 would be killed in action in the Dardanelles.  
Like King Guthrum who is rumoured to have been buried in the churchyard in Hadleigh, these men left a mythical legacy on the town they departed. The Hadleigh 'Pals' (as they have recently been called), have been remembered to this day. Their families still live in the locality. Today, you will find Bloomfield's, Chisnell's and Griggs still living in the town, honouring their forebears. Their loss is still mourned to this day.

22o8, Frank Bloomfield. 2400, Leonard Bloomfield. 1284, Herbert Chisnell. 2221, William Dunnett. 1287, Bertie Emmerson. 1872, Thomas Frost. 1499, John Green. 2313, Harry Griggs. 1275, Alfred Lambert. 1261, Arthur Maskell. 2217, George Revens. 1553, Stanley Scarff. 1250, Charles Ward. 1271, Ernest Ward. 1808, George Willis.

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