The Chronicle, No. 668, September 2015

24 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Remembering Richard Bradley By Malcolm Oxley, former Second Master and author of A New History of St Edward’s School, Oxford, 1863 – 2013

Richard Bradley, who died on 25th March 2015, succeeded the Seventh Warden, Frank Fisher, in 1966. Fisher was a hard act to follow and though Bradley had a classic public school background both in his own education (Marlborough and Trinity College, Oxford) and in his career as an outstanding Housemaster at Tonbridge, his was a very different temperament from his predecessor. Though enthusiastic and

felt in post-war Britain but even he with his acute antennae had only dimly seen how the new, fast-changing teenage world with its new mores and its accompanying market would profoundly affect independent schools in the years ahead. Bradley was sharply aware of these developments and set out to meet these approaching changes with innovation and sympathy. He was equipped intellectually and emotionally to meet ‘pupil power’ as the 1960s liked, exaggeratedly, to describe it. His leadership created a Sixth Form centre and licensed bar, a representative Upper School Committee, a growth of ‘study periods’ to promote more self-driven learning and considerable changes to the patterns of compulsory Chapel attendance to name but a few. He was full of ideas for change within the independent school structure whose potential, he believed, was great. Though not a natural politician, or administrator, he led the opposition to the proposed spur road in Summertown which would have sliced the School’s fields in half. It was a far–reaching achievement, especially when one now views the physical growth of the School west of the Woodstock Road. He had much support in the Common Room even if some, including some of the pupils, found his thoughtful soul-searching a trifle overpowering. He had a puckish sense of humour but could also appear over- earnest. He was the first married Warden since Hudson but sadly his private life was upset and he became separated from his wife. The pressures of both family life with his two children and the demands of the job took their toll and, though the Governors gave him full support at the time of his separation, they accepted his resignation when he moved on towards divorce. He left to become an immensely successful head in two North American schools, Ridley College, Ontario, and The Rivers School, Massachusetts. His was a Wardenship of great promise cut short and some have described him as ‘the lost leader’.

talented as a games player, his interests were distinctly academic and cultural. The son of a Prison Commissioner, Richard was a naturally thoughtful and sensitive man with a pronounced social conscience. His approach to education was definitively a liberal one and based on a quiet but committed Christianity. Fisher had foreseen many of the big social changes starting to make themselves