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Son of the late John Basford; husband of Edith Mary Basford, of 19 Cuyler Crescent, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Served in the South African and German South West African Campaigns. Born Leicester, England. Basford was an enthusiastic volunteer and joined the local Regiment, Prince Alfred's Guards in which he held the rank of Company Sergeant Major. He proved to be a smart and popular non-commissioned officer, and fought with the Regiment during the Boer and during the German South West African campaign. Basford was instinctively a soldier to whom family ties, though dear, promptly were superseded when there was a call to arms. Thus, the Great War found him amongst the ardent spirits in the South African Infantry, and though a middle-aged man, he lacked nothing of the energy and efficiency of his younger days. Basford had already survived many hot encounters unscathed, but, as with not a few men in the Great War, held a premonition of impending death. |
