Ernle Bradford

Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford
Born(1922-01-11)11 January 1922
Cole Green, Norfolk, England
Died8 May 1986(1986-05-08) (aged 64)
Kalkara, Malta
NationalityBritish
EducationUppingham School
Known forAuthor, historian and sailor

Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford (11 January 1922 – 8 May 1986) was a noted 20th-century British historian specializing in the Mediterranean world and naval topics.[1][2][3][4] He was also an authority on antique jewellery and was the founder editor of the Antique Dealers and Collector's Guide.[1][5][6]

Life

Bradford was the son of Jocelyn Ernle Sydney Patton Bradford MBE MC,[7][8] and his wife, Ada Louise Dusgate.[9] He was born in Cole Green, Norfolk and educated in England at Uppingham School.[1][10] He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, initially as an Ordinary Seaman but rising to the rank of first lieutenant of a Hunt Class Destroyer.[11]

Street in Kalkara, Malta, named after Bradford

A keen yachtsman himself, Bradford spent almost 30 years sailing the Mediterranean, and many of his books are set there.[12][13][14] His book, The Journeying Moon describes some of these voyages.[15] It ends with the sale of his Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, Mischief, to HW Bill Tilman, who made a number of significant voyages in it to high latitudes.[16]

A sometime BBC broadcaster and magazine editor, Bradford was also a prolific author and popular historian, many of his books remaining in print to this day.[9] He regularly wrote letters to the British press, in particular The Times and Country Life, on matters of history and sailing.[17][18]

Bradford lived in Kalkara, on Malta for a number of years, this also being where he died, and where a commemorative marble plaque exists to his memory and a street next to his old home is named after him.[9]

List of works

  • Contemporary Jewellery and Silver Design (Heywood & Co., 1950).
  • Four Centuries of European Jewellery (Country Life, 1953).
  • The Journeying Moon (Jarrolds, 1958); reprinted as: The Journeying Moon: Sailing into History.
  • English Victorian Jewellery (Country Life, 1959).
  • The Mighty Hood: The Life and Death of the Royal Navy's Proudest Ship (Hodder & Stoughton, 1959).[19]
  • The Wind Off the Island (Hutchinson, 1960); reprinted as: The Wind off the Island: A Portrait of Sicily and Life on the Mediterranean Sea.
  • US title: A Wind from the North: The Life of Henry the Navigator (Harcourt Brace, 1960); UK title: Southward the Caravels: The Story of Henry the Navigator (Hutchinson, 1961).
  • The Great Siege: Malta 1565 (Hodder & Stoughton, 1961); US title: The Great Siege (Harcourt Brace, 1961).
  • The Touchstone (Cassell, 1962).
  • Ulysses Found (Hodder & Stoughton, 1963).
  • The Companion Guide to the Greek Isles (Collins, 1963), reprinted many times.
  • Three Centuries of Sailing (Country Life, 1964).
  • The America's Cup (Country Life, 1964).
  • Drake. A Biography (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965); US edition: The Wind Commands Me: A Life of Sir Francis Drake (Harcourt, 1965); subsequently reprinted as Drake: England's Greatest Seafarer.
  • (Editor) The Siege of Malta 1565: Translated from the Spanish Edition of 1568 by Francisco Balbi di Correggio (Folio Society, 1965); reprinted by the Boydell Press, 2011.
  • Wall of England: The Channel's 2000 Years of History (Country Life, 1966); USA: Wall of Empire: The English Channel (Barnes, 1966).
  • The Great Betrayal: Constantinople 1204 (Hodder & Stoughton, 1967); USA: The Sundered Cross: The Story of the Fourth Crusade (Prentice Hall, 1967).
  • The Sultan's Admiral: The Life of Barbarossa (USA: Harcourt Brace, 1968; UK: Hodder & Stoughton, 1969).
  • Teach Yourself Antique Furniture (English Universities Press, 1970).
  • Mediterranean: Portrait of a Sea (Hodder & Stoughton, 1971).
  • Gibraltar: The History of a Fortress (Hart-Davis, 1971).[20]
  • Cleopatra (Hodder & Stoughton, 1971).
  • The Shield and the Sword: The Knights of Malta (HarperCollins, 1972); US edition: The Shield and the Sword: The Knights of St. John, Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta (Dutton, 1973).
  • Christopher Columbus (Michael Joseph, 1973).
  • The Sword and the Scimitar: The Saga of the Crusades (Victor Gollancz, 1974).
  • Paul the Traveller: Saint Paul and his World (Allen Lane, 1974).
  • Nelson: The Essential Hero (Macmillan, 1977).
  • The Year of Thermopylae (Macmillan, 1980); also published as: Thermopylae: The Battle for the West.
  • Hannibal (Macmillan, 1981); republished by The Folio Society (1996), with an introduction by Kenneth McLeish.
  • The Story of the Mary Rose (Hamish Hamilton, 1982).
  • Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power (Hamish Hamilton, 1984).
  • Siege: Malta 1940-1943 (Hamish Hamilton, 1985).
  • The Great Ship (Hamish Hamilton, 1986); reprinted as: The Great Ship: How Battleships Changed the History of War.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c Obituary in The Daily Telegraph, Friday, May 9, 1986, p. 16
  2. ^ Miller, Judith (28 September 1986). "Malta, Where Suleiman Laid Siege". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Bradford, Ernle (10 November 2014). Great siege: malta 1565. Open Road Media. OCLC 933438608.
  4. ^ Bradford, Ernle (10 November 2014). "Christopher Columbus". Open Road Media – via Open WorldCat.
  5. ^ Evans, Joan (1 January 1989). A History of Jewellery, 1100-1870. Courier Corporation. ISBN 9780486261225 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Heywood Advertiser, Friday 11 October 1968, p. 22
  7. ^ Supplement to The London Gazette, Tuesday the 17th of April, 1945, Number 37040, p. 2077
  8. ^ Supplement to The London Gazette, 10 January 1920, p. 488
  9. ^ a b c "FYCA Page".
  10. ^ "Ernle Bradford". AM Heath Literary Agents.
  11. ^ Bradford, Ernle (1971). Mediterranean: Portrait of a Sea. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. pp. 574. ISBN 0-15-158584-9.
  12. ^ Bradford, Ernle (10 November 2014). "Gibraltar: the History of a Fortress". Open Road Media – via Open WorldCat.
  13. ^ Bradford, Ernle (10 November 2014). Paul the traveller: St. Paul and his world. OCLC 933438606.
  14. ^ Bradford, Ernle (10 November 2014). "The Great Ship". Open Road Media – via Open WorldCat.
  15. ^ Bradford, Ernle (10 November 2014). "The Journeying Moon". Open Road Media. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019 – via Open WorldCat.
  16. ^ Bradford, Ernle (19 August 2014). The Journeying Moon: Sailing Into History. Open Road Integrated Media, Incorporated. ISBN 9781497637917 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ The Times, January 1, 1963, p. 11
  18. ^ The Times, April 11, 1963, p. 8
  19. ^ Bradford, Ernle Dusgate Selby (28 October 1974). The Mighty Hood. White Lion Publishers. ISBN 9780856171086 – via Google Books.
  20. ^ Bradford, Ernle Dusgate Selby (28 October 1972). Gibraltar: the History of a Fortress. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 9780151355501 – via Google Books.
  21. ^ Bradford, Ernle (19 August 2014). The Great Ship: How Battleships Changed the History of War. Open Road Integrated Media, Incorporated. ISBN 9781497637894 – via Google Books.