Frank Edward Bramford / J Archie Bramford. Frank and Archie (John Archelaus) Bramford were brothers. Their father John Bramford was born in Aisby 1879. He started out as an agricultural labourer before becoming a waggoner, firstly for a miller, then for farmers in various places including Ropsley, Braceby and Boothby Pagnell. Their mother Sarah Alice (nee Tyers) was born 1882 in Wilsford. John and Sarah married in 1906 at Heydour and had 13 children. Archie was the 5th child and Frank the 7th. In between came their sister Annie. She married in Hough in 1935, so we assume the family had settled in the village by then. They still seem to have been in Hough in 1940 but in about 1942/43 the family moved to Londonthorpe. All 6 of the Bramford sons served in the forces during World War 2. George was in the RAF, Tom in the Navy, whilst Archie, Frank, Fred & Bill were all in the Army.
Gunner Frank Edward Bramford was a driver in 2nd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (Regimental
number 868721). He died on 22 Nov 1941, age 25 and is buried Knightsbridge War Cemetery,
Acroma, Libya. 
At the time 2 RHA were part of 7th Armoured Brigade in 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats), part of Eighth Army. Eighth Army's first action was Operation Crusader, launched on 18 Nov 1941 to relieve the siege of Tobruk. By 19th Nov 7th Armoured Brigade had overrun the airfield at Sidi Rezegh but the Division suffered heavy losses when Rommel's Afrika Corps counter-attacked at Sidi Rezegh on 21/22 Nov. It seems likely that John died during this battle.
'Knightsbridge' was a British supply centre at a junction of tracks about 20 km west of Tobruk and 16 km south of Acroma, commanding all the tracks by which supplies came up to the front. The graves of many of those who gave their lives during the campaign in Libya were later gathered into Knightsbridge War Cemetery from the battlefield burial grounds and from scattered desert sites.
Lance Corporal J Archie Bramford served in 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment (Regimental number 4800651). He died age 33 years on 27th Dec 1944 and is buried in Sai Wan Cemetery, Hong Kong.
The 1st Lincs were based in India at the start of the war. In March 1942 the battalion joined with the newly formed 71st Indian Infantry Brigade, 26th Indian Division. It fought in the Arakan (Burma) from Feb 1943 to Nov 1944. On Nov 11th 1944 the brigade was withdrawn to the Bombay Area for amphibious operations training.
Sai Wan War Cemetery is in the north-east of the island of Hong Kong. The island of Hong Kong fell to the Japanese on Christmas Day 1941. Most of those buried in this cemetery were killed at this time, or died later as internees or prisoners of war during the Japanese occupation. It is not clear how Archie can have died in Hong Kong whilst his unit was in Bombay, but we can speculate that he may have been captured by the Japanese whilst fighting in Burma.
Frank and Archie Bramford are listed on the Londonthorpe war memorial and on the Hough on the Hill memorial (but spelt 'Bamford').
