Recollections of a colleague whose memory may be at fault

Abstract

Bradford was a small, dapper man, dressed immaculately in expensive suits, and in the rose season never without a perfect specimen in his button‐hole. He walked with his feet turned out in a very characteristic fashion and out of doors used a heavy walking‐stick. He obtained his degree by study at night‐school and his D.Sc. by research carried out in his office in the Library. Any ordinary person would have been deterred by the lack of normal facilities such as water, gas, electrical points (the room was heated by a coal fire!). He arrived punctually at the then official starting time of 10 a.m., lunched off sandwiches in his room, and went home at the official time of 4.50 p.m. In between he worked like a beaver. After he became Keeper of the Library his scientific work was of a theoretical nature as he had by then got his D.Sc. Anything he wanted to achieve he worked at against all odds and would never give up no matter what obstacles were put in his way, in his library work as in his scientific.