As we approach Remembrance Sunday, we remember twin boys from the Adler family who were at Bradfield and are commemorated together on the College War Memorial. Harold and Paul Adler were born in March 1915. They both arrived at Bradfield together in September 1928. Both were in G House with Housemaster Mr Moulsdale.

Second Lieutenant Harold James Adler (G 28-32) left Bradfield in December 1932 and joined the Rifles Brigade 9th Battalion (1st Battalion Tower Hamlets Rifles) rising to 2nd Lieutenant. He was killed in action in Egypt on 25 February 1942 at 26 years of age. His obituary reads that he was killed while gallantly leading his men into action. "Always an unassuming and essentially peaceable person at school, he had in him a hard core of determination if he thought it necessary to stand up for things that were right." After Bradfield he was living in South Africa in connection with the family firm, in which he had already established a good position for himself, when war broke out. He returned as soon as possible, joined the Army, and had quickly proved himself a most capable and efficient officer. He is remembered on the Alamein Memorial [Column 73] in Egypt.

Captain Paul Sabel Adler (G 28-33) left in July 1933 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps where he was a Captain. He married in 1940 and was killed in action on 5 November 1944 at the age of 29 years while serving in Burma with the King’s African Rifles. His obituary in the Bradfield Chronicle at the time notes; “Very gallantly fighting in a Burmese jungle, Paul Adler has gone to join his twin brother Harold, who was killed in Libya in 1942. They came to the House on the Hill in 1928 and appeared to be inseparable as they went steadily up the School together, Then Paul turned to medicine as his career, and went up to Christ’s College, Cambridge where he qualified successfully. Even at school he had expressed a desire to become a Service doctor and this wish had been abundantly fulfilled. He was in France almost from the beginning and went through the full rigours of the Dunkirk retreat in charge of a hospital train. Later he became attached to the King’s African Rifles and after a period of training in East Africa, he again reached the front. “Under heavy fire”, writes his Colonel, “he left his R.A.P. without thought for his own safety to attend to the wounded, and was killed instantly by and enemy shell. The manner of his death was an example and inspiration to us all.  Such words speak for themselves, and we are proud to be able to record them. We extend again our deep sympathy to his parents, and to his wife and children. His little boy has already been entered for his old house.”

Paul is commemorated at Taukkyan War Cemetery in Myanmar [16A.F.15.] The inscription on his memorial reads “HOME IS THE SAILOR, HOME FROM SEA, AND THE HUNTER HOME FROM THE HILL.”

Their names appear together on the Bradfield War Memorial below. 

We do not have a house photo of them, but they will be included in the whole school picture below taken in May 1931. If you have family stories to share about the war or other topics we would love to hear from you.