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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
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
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’.