On Tower Hill Memorial, Trinity Square, London is the name of First Engineer Charles Lord Bradley serving on S.S. Joshua Nicholson with the Mercantile Marine who died 18/03/1917.
He was the husband of Caroline Bradley (nee Robinson), of 22, Dunbar Street, Sunderland. He was born at Sunderland.
Pauline Priano has submitted the following;
Charles Lord Bradley was the second born of 3 sons and had a younger sister.
His father Thomas Bradley Jnr was born at Sunderland, historically in County Durham, May 18th 1855. He was the son of draper Thomas Bradley Snr and Margaret Wetherald.
Thomas Bradley Jnr was married at the parish church of St. Thomas, Bishopwearmouth, County Durham, July 27th 1880. Prior to his marriage to Alice Elizabeth Snowdon of 67, Coronation Street, Sunderland, Thomas Jnr was living at 48, Villiers Street, Sunderland. Alice Elizabeth was the daughter of mariner Thomas Snowdon and Elizabeth Alice Lord.
The young couple settled at Sunderland where Thomas Snowdon Bradley was born in 1881, Charles Lord 1883 and Harold Orton 1886. In 1891 the family was living at 55, Amberley Street, Hendon, Sunderland, near the docks where Thomas Bradley was employed as an assistant traffic manager. His circumstances permitted him to employ a servant to assist his wife in running the home and caring for their children. Later that year the family was complete with the birth of a daughter whom they named Mary.
Thomas Bradley was an out-door manager employed by the River Wear Commissioners at the harbour in 1901, Thomas Snowdon was a clerk at the chemical works, Charles Lord worked as a mechanical fitter. Harold (14) and Mary (10) were not listed in the 1901 census as scholars. The Bradleys had taken into their home Alice Elizabeth’s widowed mother Elizabeth Ann Lord.
Between 1901 and 1911 the Bradleys moved to Leeds, however, Charles Lord Bradley remained in the north-east and married Caroline Robinson in 1909 in the district of Tynemouth, Northumberland. Caroline was the daughter of ship builder’s clerk Henry Robinson and Mary Bowden Lambton, she was born December 22nd 1892 and aged 18 years was employed as a telephone operator.
In 1911 Caroline Bradley and her sister Mary Florence Robinson were visitors at 66, Fountayne Street, Stamford Hill, North Stoke Newington, Hackney, London, in the 8 roomed home of their sister, housekeeper Miss Charlotte Robinson.
The whereabouts of Charles Lord Bradley in 1911 are unknown, however, he and Caroline had a son Charles, who was born at Ilford, Essex, in 1914.
The first reference to Charles Lord Bradley as an engineer is in 1916 as he was listed as a resident of Malta and initiated January 10th 1916 into the Waller Rodwell Wright Masonic Lodge.
In 1917 Charles Lord Bradley was engaged as 1st Engineer aboard the British streamer Joshua Nicholson, a cargo ship owned at the time by Westcott & Laurance Line Limited which was defensively armed during WW1. Whilst en-route from London to Alexandria in Egypt she was torpedoed at 6.30 a.m., March 18th 1917 by U-70 off Wolf Rock, Lands End, Cornwall with the loss of 26 lives including the Master.
1st Engineer Charles Lord Bradley, resident at 6, Brandling Terrace, North Shields, is deemed to have drowned. His sacrifice is recorded as one of 36,065 names inscribed on Tower Hill Memorial which stands in Trinity Square Gardens, Tower Hill, London, commemorating men and women of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets who died in both World Wars and who have no known grave. He was 33 years of age..
The personal effects of 1st Engineer Bradley in the sum of £399 3 shillings and 10 pence were assigned to accountant Henry Robinson May 17th 1917. His widow received all monied due to him from the Merchant Navy and his awards of the Mercantile Marine Medal and British War Medal sent to 44, Lish Avenue, Whitley Bay, Northumberland, which was her parents’ home.
Caroline Bradley (38) and her son Charles (7) were living with her parents at Lish Avenue, Whitley Bay in 1921. As well as caring for his widowed daughter and grandson, Henry Robinson (72) a book keeper to shipbuilders Swan Hunter Wigham Richardson, supported his wife and 3 unmarried daughters, Charlotte (45) listed as the housekeeper, Mary Frances (43) and Fanny Mitchell (35).
Charles’ mother Alice Elizabeth Bradley nee Snowdon died in the district of Doncaster, Yorkshire West Riding in 1921. His father, Thomas Bradley, April 13th 1927 Converse, South Carolina, U.S.A.
Charles and Caroline’s son Charles Bradley died in 1925 in the district of Sunderland, he was 11 years of age.
The death of Caroline Bradley nee Robinson was registered in the district of Sunderland, July 15th 1948.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
Rev. David Youngson has submitted the following:
Charles Lord BRADLEY
Mercantile Marine
First Engineer SS Joshua Nicholson
His home address was 6 Brandling Terrace, North Shields, Northumberland. Whilst residing at Malta he was Initiated in Waller Rodwell Wright Lodge No 2755, Valletta, Malta on the 10th January 1916 at Malta, which transferred its meeting to Aldershot from 1985, following the Island achieving its independence, and there is no record of any further Advancement. He died on 18th March 1917 aged 33. He is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial, London.
The S.S. Joshua Nicholson (1853 grt) ship number 79243, was built in 1880 by the Tyne Iron Shipbuilding Company Limited, Newcastle on Tyne for the Joshua Nicholson Steam Ship Company Limited. It was managed by Westcott and Laurance Limited, London (Ellerman). She was torpedoed and sunk by the U Boat U 70, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Wünsche, in the Atlantic Ocean off Wolf Rock, on a voyage from London to Alexandria, Egypt with general cargo. No warning was given and there were 26 casualties.
Charles Lord Bradley is remembered at Hendon on H123.02, at Sunderland on S140.017, in S140.48 Part 8 page 168, in the Bedan Magazines (See Names Index below) and in our List of Ships’ Crews.
