Montague Vivian (Monty) Brayshaw was born in 1893 at Swindon Grange, Kirkby Overblow, one of five children born to Samuel and Laura Mary Brayshaw. The 1911 Census records Monty as an 18-year-old working on the family farm of Swinton Grange and living with his widowed mother and siblings Samuel Denison (19), Florence Mary (16), Geoffrey Edmund Isaac (14) and Frances Beryl (11).
Monty enlisted into the Army in 1914 and joined the British Expeditionary Force in France with 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars, landing at Havre with the Hussars' "C" (Knaresborough) Squadron on 16th April 1915. Early in the following month "A", "B" and "C" squadrons came together to form XVII Corps Cavalry Regiment.
From 22nd June 1916, the Hussars were headquartered at Berles-au-Bois, south-west of Arras. Monty is recorded as killed in action on 5th October 1916; his family were told that he had been struck by a shell and that death was instantaneous. The Hussars' war diary gives little clue as to his fate, mentioning only that the regiment had sent a relief working party up to the trenches on the previous day.
Montgomery Vivian Brayshaw was buried in Ecoivres Military Cemetery, Mont-St- Eloi, curiously far removed from the regiment's location, though the cemetery is known for its dead being brought in from the front line trenches by use of the French military tramway.