Major E.J. Bruford
&
Lieutenant-Colonel J.W. Nicol
7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

On arrival of his battalion on the start line, he found that about 50 of the enemy with three machine guns were still in the area. He quickly took charge of the situation and having eliminated this opposition, proceeded with his task … Throughout the operation he showed outstanding personal courage and capacity to command in the face of heavy resistance.

(Nicol, D.S.O. citation, 21 Dec 1944)

Within weeks of landing in France in late June 1944, the 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry of the 43rd Division suffered heavy casualties would lose a series of commanding officers. Lieutenant-Colonel R.G.P. Besley was wounded and evacuated on 3 July, Lieutenant-Colonel G.C.P. Lance was killed on 10 July. The third CO, Edward Jeffries Bruford was born on 4 July 1900 in Cheddar, Somerset. He was a football player and civil servant with the Ministry of Agriculture. A Territorial Army officer, he was commissioned into the 5th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry in 1925. Just three days after replacing Lance, Bruford was killed alongside the CO of the 7th Hampshires, Major J.R.C. Mallock.

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