CFHS code : AG293
Parish : St Andrew the Great
Inscription : ILM of my dear husband BERTIE BRADLEY d Oct 7 1913 aged 40 also of ROBERT MUSGRAVE BRADLEY b Sep 12 1902 d Sep 22 1941
Monument : Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.203084, 0.1364697 – click here for location
Monument
This set of kerbstones, located in the parish area of Andrew the Great, lie 2 rows from the west wall in front of the large column of Tom Hall. There is a stone for Margaret which we think should lie within these kerbs but has been moved to a site further to the north. The inscriptions of metal letters are in good order. This area of the cemetery is usually left to grow wild and the kerbstones are often covered in leaves, ivy and grass.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of my dear husband BERTIE BRADLEY who fell asleep Oct 7. 1913. Aged 40.
Also of ROBERT MUSGRAVE BRADLEY born Sep. 12. 1902 died Sep. 22. 1941
[In loving memory of Margaret Helena Bradley died 13th March 1963 aged 86 years]
Robert Ernest (Bertie) Bradley (1873 – 7 October 1913)
Bertie was born in Market Drayton, Shropshire and was baptised there on 5 September 1873. He was the son of Joseph and Hephzibah (née Griffiths) and grew up at Shropshire Street, Market Drayton where hsis father was a boot and shoe dealer. In 1901 Bertie was living at 1 Holland Park, where he was butler to widow Isabel Ionides. He married Margaret Helena Hall (1877-1963) at Cambridge Registry Office on 25 March 1902 and they had one son: Robert Musgrave. They started married life at King Street, and Bertie worked as a waiter. In June 1903 he was charged ‘for causing an obstruction in Sidney Street, by leaving his bicycle on the footpath’. He was fined 2s by the courts.
The couple later ran a Lodging House at 20 Trinity Street, and were helped by Margaret’s sister Beatrice and niece Lavinia (1911). They had moved to 22 St. John’s Road by the time he died in October 1913. His probate records recorded him as a Lodging House keeper.
Robert Musgrave Bradley (12 September 1902 – 22 September 1941)
Robert was affectionately known as ‘Muzzie’ and was educated at the Higher Grade School and then the Cambridge and County High School. By 1930 Robert and his mother Margaret had moved to 68 Jesus Lane, where she ran a Lodging House. He owned the Castle Braes Garage, Castle Street and was a prominent local sportsman. He played football, and as a young man enjoyed ‘considerable success in the motor cycling field’. Robert was a member of the Cambridge Hockey Club, before moving to the Cambridge YMCA team in 1924 and was Captain of the First XI from 1925 until his death. He played hockey at County level and after retirement from county hockey was appointed to the County Selection Committee – he also umpired many hockey games at a county and university level. He was also a very good tennis player (playing for the De Freville and Town and County Clubs} and golf player at the Newmarket Golf Club as well as excelling at fishing, shooting and table tennis.
Robert died as a result of an accident ‘on the main road leading from Newmarket to London near the Newmarket Golf Course, Cambridgeshire’. The resulting inquest heard that Robert had been playing golf with some friends and he and one other man died when the car they were travelling in, collided with the trailer of a stationary lorry. The lorry driver said that he had left his vehicle and was at the rear of the trailer when he saw a car approaching at speed. ‘It was coming very fast’ said witness. ‘I should say about 60 miles an hour. The car caught the back corner of my trailer. It rebounded off the trailer and twiddled round in the road’. Witness did not hear the brakes of the car applied’. Robert died at the scene of multiple injuries and other other man (Frank Faulkner) was unconscious but died later in hospital. The driver was unharmed, and one other man was taken to hospital and recovered.
His obituary in local newspapers read ‘with his natural gift for making friends and his cheerful and happy nature, he will be missed by hundreds. He was loved by everyone priviledged to know him, was a considerate employer, a devoted son, a great sportsman and a true friend’. It was also written that Town and County sporting circles had been robbed ‘of a popular figure and loveable character’.
Margaret Helena Bradley (née Hall) (1 January 1877 – 13 March 1963)
Margaret was born in Whaddon, a village six miles north of Royston and was the daughter of James and Sarah (née Saggers). Her father was a farmer and her mother ran the Pickering Arms on the High Street (1881). Margaret was still living at 68 Jesus Lane in 1963 and died at Chesterton Hospital.
Source:
Ancestry
by Claire Martinsen and Mary Naylor
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]