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Showing posts from November, 2018

Richard Bragg in the First World War - Part 2 - Trench trains

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Damaged railway line at Ypres In the first part on the history of my Grandfather in the First World War, I explained that I only had very limited information on his story during the Great war. To my surprise, when going into his military records, I discovered that he also took part in the South West African campaign from 1914 to 1915. This I discussed in Part 1 of this series. According to his records, he was discharged from the army after the successful completion, and defeat of the Germans in S.W.A. He was discharged on 31 August 1915. He was a train driver, so I presume he continued with his life as a train driver. I obtained some information from a family member that his brother, Joe Bragg (it was probably Joseph Bragg - as this was a family name at that stage), also came to South Africa with him as a train driver. I understand that he was killed in a train accident. There was a train crash in the Cape on 22 April 1911 in which 30 people were killed. Another fatal train crash i