My task was daunting! The three chums I had to find were George Bramwell, Bobby Glue, and Pudgie Taylor. It didn't take me long to determine that "Pudgie" must have been a nickname and the name "Bobby Glue" was questionable.
The Internet is a marvelous instrument for researching. One site I found that really helped me get started was "The Long, Long Trail". This site gave me the background I needed and suggestions for sites that are useful for researching British soldiers.
I spent hours at different sites trying to find any information on the three chums. On the British National Archives website I found several soldiers with the last name Bramwell, but George was missing.
Someone suggested I go the Commonwealth Burial website since their database contains the names of fallen British soldiers from WWI. I uncovered several hundred soldiers with the last name Taylor, turned up zero for anyone with the last name of Glue and several Bramwells. Fruitless using the first name George, I decided to focus on all Bramwells that died within the dates of George's death.
Narrowing down the field, I reviewed the personal information on each until I found one that served in the 40th battery and died within a day of George's death. The problem was the soldier's first name was Percy not George. However, the odds of two soldiers with the same last name, serving in the 40th battery and killed within a day of each other was so small I decided that I found one chum.
Bobby, Robert or any other derivation thereof with the last name Glue didn't exist. I tried the same trick I used with Bramwell trying to locate those with the last name Taylor. Nothing!
Through another website's forum I was recommended to use the "Great War Forum". I highly recommend this site for anyone trying to find information about any subject dealing with WWI. As excellent of a resource as they are, they couldn't help.
After two years I ended up locating on chum and it took another six months of researching to locate a living relative of Percy (George) Bramwell.
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