Private William John Roy Brodie (1898-1992) was the son of fruit grower and market gardener Francis Gordon Brodie and his Dublin-born wife, Elizabeth. The family lived in Longdon House, Wickhamford in 1901 (the census enumerator mis-spelt the name as ‘Broadie’) and although William had been born in the village he was not baptized there. By 1911 he was at boarding-school in Eastbourne and his parents had moved to ‘Briarlea’, Aldington.
William Brodie’s service records are scant but interesting, showing that he first enrolled at 17 years 11 months old in 1916. A document of 20th February 1917 gives his occupation as a bank clerk in Lewisham. Here he states that he is a conscientious objector and he was accepted into the No 10 Employment Co., Non Combatant Corps (No 3740). Such companies were involved in salvage operations. He appears on the 1919 Absent Voters' List as William John Broadie, based at Milton Barracks, Gravesend.