The BRADSHAW Family

Frederick William Bradshaw (1910 - 1999)

Family Tree         Family Group Sheet

Fred was the third child of Charles Henry Bradshaw and Edith Mabel Sawyer who had been married in June 1905.  He was born on 23rd March 1910.  His elder brother, Robert Henry, was then nearly 4.  His sister, Edith Joan, my mother, was just over 2½.

Fred's Christening

Frederick Bradshaw's Christening

Frederick, normally known as Fred or Freddie, was christened on 1st August 1910 when he was about 4 months old.  Nearly all the close family were there, the only significant omission being that of his uncle, Henry Hollington Sawyer, who was in India at the time.

The next photograph shows Fred with his brother, Robert Henry, and sister, Edith Joan and was probably taken about 1916 when Fred was 6.

RHB children

Charles Henry Bradshaw's three children.

According to the 1911 census, Fred was born in Enfield, Middlesex and as the family was living at 11, Fyfield Road, Enfield at the time of the census, he was probably born there.

In 1917, when he was 7, his father died of an unspecified heart condition.  The family legend is that he had had a bad attack of flu, and had had to become fully active again too soon, thereby straining his heart.  This was, of course, just before the peak of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19.  Prior to his death, he had spent some time in The National Heart Hospital which had recently moved to new premises in Westmorland Street.  He wrote letters with his children some of which have survived.  He finally was discharged from hospital in July 1916 but he died eight months later at home.  His Death Certificate gives his cause of death as Morbus Cordis and Syncope. Syncope is otherwise known as fainting and can be fatal. Morbus Cordis is heart disease and is a catch-all phrase for death by natural causes when the exact cause is not evident. Charles's death at the early age of 41 caused a financial crisis for the family which lasted until well into the 1920s.

Fred's mother, Edith, and his sister, Joan, went to live with Edith's father, William Sawyer at his house in Bethune Road.  Fred always used to refer to the place where he and Bob were sent to as an orphanage, but which I think should have been more properly described as as a boarding school for the sons of distressed masons, Charles having been a mason.  Fred always used to say that his experience there was good preparation for the privations he suffered in the Japanese prisoner of war camp at Changi, following the fall of Singapore in February 1942. The rest of his schooling was at Southgate where his mother and grandfather were living.

His first job was with Fyffes Bananas, which had a football team. Fred was their goalkeeper and helped them to win the Business Cup!

Joan used to share a bedroom with her mother and was very unhappy at this time.  Perhaps one of the reasons that she became engaged to Philip Harold Bigg in 1926 when she was only 18, and married him two years later when she was 20, was because of her unhappiness at home.  Another factor was that her mother, Edith Mabel Bradshaw (née Sawyer) had married Sydney Robinson on 7 January, 1927 and that following this marriage Joan and her mother were living at Alderman House, 132 Alderman's Hill, Southgate.

The scout

Fred at about 16

Following this, Fred waited until Joan's marriage which took place on 26th May 1928, and then went to Canada to seek his fortune.  On 9th June 1928, only a couple of weeks after Joan's marriage, he sailed aboard the "Empress of France", a Canadian Pacific boat, which was bound for Quebec.  At the time he was described as a Clerk, living at 132 Alderman's Hill, Palmers Green.  His country of future permanent residence was listed as Canada, which implied that he intended to stay there at least one year.  He was then 18 and a doctor friend, Dr Robert Simpson of Winchmore Hill, London, possibly his scout master, was travelling to Vancouver to visit his family and offered to take him there to start life anew. He and Dr Simpson had sequential ticket numbers and are listed together in the list of passengers.

Family photo with William Sawyer

Fred at about 18 prior to going to Canada

From Quebec he travelled to Vancouver where he initially worked in a department store. Later, he got a job as a clerk in a bank. He did not enjoy the work much but stuck it out for several years. For a period he worked in the branch at Prince Rupert, a town some 500 miles up the Pacific coast. Here he first met a young stenographer in the branch called Margarette Craig Duncan, known as Steve, who was also the daughter of one of the bank’s senior executive’s. However at the time, this relationship does not seem to have come to anything.

He lived in Canada for several years and it was in Vancouver on 4th June 1934, six years after he had first arrived in Canada, that he married his first wife, the 20 year old Margaret Amelia Ryan.  Within a month of their marriage, the couple came back to England leaving from New York on the “President Roosevelt”, a steamship of the United States Line, and arriving at Plymouth on 5th July 1934. They were listed as Frederick Bradshaw, Banker aged 24, and Margaret Bradshaw, Housewife aged 20. Their proposed address in the UK was 132 Alderman's Hill, London, Fred's mother's home, and the country of their future permanent residence was listed as England.

Margaret must have visited Canada again some time later as there is also a record of her re-entering the UK at Southampton, bound for 110 Sutherland Avenue, Maida Vale on 17th July 1936. She is recorded as an actress aged 22 and with the intention of being permanently resident in England. She is also listed as being unaccompanied by her husband.

Fred was an actor from shortly after the time he returned to England with Margaret in 1934 until the start of WW2 and after it until about 1951. His good looks and clear voice won him parts in repertory theatre and several seasons at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, but the West End never beckoned. His filmography is listed in www.imdb.com.  His first role recorded there was in 1935 where he played Jack Lawton opposite Molly Lamont as Mary Talbot in "Alibi Inn".  The cast included Wilfred Hyde-White as the Husband.  The next year, 1936, appears to have been a good one for him.  He is recorded as being in "The Belles of St. Clements", "April Fools", "Dreams Come True", "If I Were Rich" and "Highland Fling".  There are no entries for 1937 but in 1938 he played in "What a Man!".

His marriage to Margaret did not last and sometime before the war Margaret went back to Canada, this time with no intention of returning.

The soldier

At the outbreak of was, Fred enlisted in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry

When war broke out Fred enlisted in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, part of the Royal Artillery, and he was soon commissioned as Captain.  They were attached to the Norfolk Regiment and were soon posted to the Far East.  Unfortunately for him, he was in Singapore when that fell to the Japanese in February 1942 and from then until the end of the war, he was a prisoner of war in Changi prison.

For the first few months the POW’s at Changi were allowed to do as they wished with little interference from the Japanese. There was just enough food and medicine provided and, to begin with, the Japanese seemed indifferent to what the POW’s did at Changi. Concerts were organised, quizzes, sporting events etc held. The camp was organised into battalions, regiments etc. and meticulous military discipline was maintained. Fred was appointed camp entertainment officer and with other professional actors and volunteers put on a wide variety of plays from Shakespeare to ‘Arsenic & Old Lace’! Of course they played to packed houses. After all, there wasn’t anything else to do in the evenings!

By Easter 1942, the attitude of the Japanese had changed.  They organised work parties to repair the damaged docks in Singapore and food and medicine became scarce.  More pointedly, the Japanese made it clear that they had not signed the Geneva Convention and that they ran the camp as they saw fit.  For this reason, 40,000 men from the surrender of Singapore were marched to the northern tip of the island where they were imprisoned at a military base called Selerang, which was near the village of Changi. The British civilian population of Singapore was imprisoned in Changi jail itself, one mile away from Selerang.  Eventually, any reference to the area was simply made to Changi.

As 1942 moved on, death from dysentery and vitamin deficiencies became more common.  The mood of the Japanese changed for the worst when a POW tried to escape.  The attempt was a failure and the Japanese demanded that everyone in the camp sign a document declaring that they would not attempt to escape.  This was refused. As a result, 20,000 POW’s were herded onto a barrack square and told that they would remain there until the order was given to sign the document.  When this did not get the desired result, a group of POW’s was marched to the local beach and shot.  Despite this, no-one signed the document.  Only when the men were threatened by an epidemic, was the order given that the document should be signed.  However, the commanding officer made it clear that the document was non-binding as it had been signed under duress.  He also knew that his men desperately needed the medicine that the Japanese would have withheld if the document had not been signed.  But this episode marked a point of no-return for the POW’s at Changi.

The Japanese used the POW’s at Changi for forced labour.  The formula was very simple – if you worked, you would get food.  If you did not work, you would get no food.  Men were made to work in the docks where they loaded munitions onto ships.  They were also used to clear sewers damaged in the attack on Singapore.  The men who were too ill to work relied on those who could work for their food.  Sharing what were already meagre supplies became a way of life.

The number of POW’s kept at Changi dropped quite markedly as men were constantly shipped out to other areas in the Japanese empire to work. Men were sent to Borneo, or to Thailand to work on the Burma-Thai railway, or to Japan itself where they were made to work down mines.  They were replaced by more captured soldiers, airmen and sailors from a variety of Allied nations.  Malaria, dysentery and dermatitis were common, as were beatings for not working hard enough.

In 1943, the 7,000 men left at Selerang were moved to the jail in Changi.  It was built to hold 1,000 people.  The Japanese crammed in the 7,000 POW’s, five or six to one-man cells. With such overcrowding, the risk of disease and it spreading was very real.  Very little arrived from the Red Cross and the men at Changi had to rely on their own initiative to survive.  For example, the army medics at Changi made tablets and convinced the Japanese guards that they were a cure for VD, and accordingly sold them to the guards.  They could then buy proper medicine for their own men in an attempt to aid those who were sick.

As the end of the Pacific War approached, rations to the POW’s were reduced and the work requirement increased.  POW’s were made to dig tunnels and fox holes in the hills around Singapore so that the Japanese would have places to hide and fight when the Allies finally reached Singapore.  Pay for this work was increased to 30 cents a day – but one coconut cost $30.  Many POW’s believed that the Japanese would kill them as the Allies got near to Singapore.  Fortunately this never happened.  When Emperor Hirohito told the people of Japan that the war ‘has gone not necessarily to our advantage’, the Japanese soldiers at Changi simply handed over the prison to those who had been the prisoners.  To these soldiers, they were simply obeying an Imperial order and were not disgracing their families or their country.

While in Singapore, Fred was appointed as acting-Major but this was not ratified as the appropriate authorities were by this time out of contact.

Changi was finally relieved on 5th September 1945, three and a half years after Fred had fallen into Japanese hands.  After a few weeks the British ex-POWs were shipped home, a journey that was designed to give them time to recover and put on a bit of weight.  His sister, Joan, met him from the boat, by which time he was about 10½ stone which is very light for a well built man of 6ft 3in. She remarked that he still looked very thin.  "You should have seen me three months ago!" was his reply - he had been 7½ stone when Changi had been relieved!

It took Fred 6 months to recover and then a film producer called Maurice Ostrer put him under contract for 3 years.  The parts were unexciting but the money was enough to get married on.  Ever since Fred’s first marriage had ended, he and Steve had corresponded although while he was in Changi it is not clear how many, if any, letters had got through.  However, the result was that in 1946 Steve agreed to come to England so that they could get married.

Steve’s father had been a senior executive in the Canadian bank that Fred had worked for, but he had died in 1937 before the war.  In May 1946, Steve and her mother, Nora Mabel Duncan (née Dunn), left Vancouver by train to travel to Quebec in order to catch the boat to England.  This is a journey of nearly 3000 miles and takes several days. Tragically, her mother died on the journey on 31 May 1946 in a place called Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan.  In spite of this, Steve caught the “Beaverburn”, another Canadian Pacific liner, to Liverpool about 10 days later, arriving on 16th June.  The list of passengers, which is now available on-line, records her proposed address as Hammer Lane, Grayshott, Surrey which is where Fred’s mother then lived.

The wedding took place on 29 June 1946.  They were married in the Register Office at Alton, Hampshire, the nearest one to Grayshott.  On their marriage certificate the following is noted under Fred's Condition - "Formerly the husband of Margaret Amelia Bradshaw, formerly Ryan, from whom he obtained a divorce."

Marriage group

The wedding reception was held at West View, Fred's mother's house

Fred’s career as an actor after the war was no more successful than it had been pre-war.  In 1947 he played in several TV movies as well as on the stage.  In 1948 he had a part as the Chamberlain in “Idol of Paris” which starred Andrew Cruickshank as Prince Nicholas.  He also did voice-overs and commentaries and also some modeling!  I can remember being surprised by a full sized picture of Fred advertising some smart men’s clothing on the wall of a tube tunnel on a visit to London!

Signed publicity photo for Idol of Paris

A publicity photo for "Idol of Paris"

By 1951 he had come to realise that he would never make the breakthrough that was necessary for him to continue to work as an actor.  He therefore got a job at Lloyds of London in the theatre department, but after two years in 1953, surprisingly, he went to Cardiff as a car salesman.  One of his customers there was a touring actress who, on hearing he was an actor, persuaded him to try his luck in theatre management and offered to put in a good word for him.

Another publicity photo

Another publicity photograph

His application was successful and his first job was as front of house manager at the Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Road.  Later he was to have a similar role at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, a member of the same group of theatres.  He loved the job, particularly the show “Irma la Douce” which ran for three years and opened there on 17 July 1958.  However, he felt it was not suitable long term because of the hours - he seldom got home before midnight - which was very hard for Steve.  A few years later, he was appointed as a lay advisor to Southwark Cathedral.  However, after a year he resigned.  He suggested that they should deconsecrate bombed out churches in the diocese and sell the land for development.  This they could no accept. “While I can sympathise with your dilemma”, he said at the time, “don’t cry poverty to me when you are sitting on a gold mine!”

Signed publicity photo for Idol of Paris

Fred and Steve in about 1960

His next major venture was to found Leomark, which was established to produce a recording of the New Testament of The New English Bible. This new translation from the original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts was first published in 1961.  The project to record this and sell it on LPs was financed by a merchant banker and was the perfect job for a devout Christian like Fred.  He persuaded the cream of the English stage to take part in the project for very modest fees.  They included Sybil Thorndike, Flora Robson, Judi Dench, Robert Harris, Andrew Cruickshank, Paul Rogers and several others.

Unfortunately, the venture was not a commercial success.  When it was completed in 1967, he was appointed secretary of The Stage Golfing Society.  He had been their honorary treasurer for 10 years.  The Society is based at Richmond Golf Club in Surrey.  He retired in 1976 and at the time of his death in 1999, was still remembered with great affection and respect, as demonstrated by the fact that they flew the flag at half mast in remembrance of him.

Fred and Steve retired to Norfolk, firstly to North Walsham, where his brother had been the local vicar, and then to Aylsham. He always maintained that when you retired, you should live within walking distance of the church and the pub.  Then you could discuss the sermon over a pint on the way home!

Steve died in 1992, but Fred was able to continue to live in their house in Aylsham because Edward, who was now on his own, came to live with him.  Finally this became too much and he spent his last months in a care home.

Fred died in January 1999, shortly before his 89th birthday - not bad for a man whose fellow POWs in Changi had taken bets about whether he would last until he got home!