8th December 2015 Raymond Bushell – 2 St Stephen’s Villas Raymond Bushell was born in York in 1894. His father was an Agricultural Implement Maker and his family lived at Melton House, a large house on Holgate Road, York. He had at least two brothers and one sister. His father must have thought Stamford’s Agricultural Implement Works a suitable place for Raymond to be trained because that was what he was doing in 1911. He was boarding with the Parker family at 2 St Stephen’s Villas. Whether Raymond knew Frederick Eustace Parker before he came to board there or whether they just met as fellow apprentices we do not know. Neither do we know how long he stayed in the town. We do know he joined the Durham Light Infantry and was serving in France by November 1915. He gained the rank of Lieutenant before he was reported wounded and missing in March 1918. In fact he had been captured in Germany and was a prisoner in Graudenz, a fortress town near the Polish border where captured British Officers were housed in the barracks. (See attached description) Raymond Bushell on the right In July he was able to send a telegram home saying where he was which must have been a consolation to his parents when his brother, Horace, was killed in action in September. Raymond was repatriated in December 1918 and another brother, Neville, also survived the war. Neville went to Australia after the war but Raymond stayed in Britain, married, had 3 children and became an Agricultural Merchant – perhaps he returned to Stamford from time to time in that capacity? He lived until he was 98 years old, dying in 1993.