Bradley, Hugh Henry (1890-1955)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

HUGH HENRY BRADLEY: born at Chipping Norton in 1890, he was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Macclesfield, and entered Hartley College in 1912. A son of the manse, from his earliest days he knew the joys and the discipline of the ministry. A boyhood admiration for David Livingstone made the work overseas one of his dreams, but it was not to be fulfilled until later in life. Meanwhile he gave unsparingly of himself to home circuits in: Colnbrook, Clay Cross, Kingsley, Wigton, Rotherham, Wellington (Shropshire), Wolverhampton, Chippenham, Leek, and Leigh. 

In 1925 he became a chaplain to the Territorial Army, and as a consequence was called up on the first day of the 1939-45 war. He rendered outstanding service as an army Chaplain, and it was during this period that his boyhood dream was realized. He was posted to Sierra Leone with his men, and for a year, to his great joy, had intimate connection with our mission-field there.

Throughout his ministry there was a courtesy and a kindliness which drew him close to his people. In his preaching there was a sure note of experience, and he knew how to comfort and to challenge the hearts of men. In retirement he and his wife, herself a daughter of the manse, settled in the Southport (North) circuit, and during the last months of his life he characteristically undertook the pastoral duties of a brother minister temporarily laid aside. He died on 7th June 1955, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and the fortieth of his ministry.

Family

Hugh was born in 1890 at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, to parents John Bradley and Sarah Maria Marriott.

Before entering the ministry, Hugh worked as an elementary school teacher.

He married Ethel Jean Gillender (1887-1983), daughter of Rev. John Gillender, in the summer of 1919 in the Runcorn Registration District, Cheshire.

Hugh died on 7 June 1955 at Mount Stewart Nursing Home, Torquay, Devon.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1915 Colnbrook
• 1919 Clay Cross
• 1920 Kingsley & Frodsham
• 1923 Wigton
• 1927 Rotherham
• 1931 Wellington
• 1934 Wolverhampton Darlington St
• 1937 Chippenham
• 1940 Chaplain H.M. Forces
• 1945 Leek
• 1949 Leigh, Leigh Rd
• 1953 Southport (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1955/146

W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers