DESIRE AND DIVINITY
A Brief Biographical Sketch of
Reverend Edwin Emmanuel Bradford (1860-1944)
By
Barry Van-Asten
‘The poets loved their dreams – I see
How sweet, how perfect is the real!’
(O Love, my Love. Sonnets, Songs and Ballads. 1908)
THE YOUNG POET
‘Let lover seek his mate, then side by side
Let them beget fair dreams – an offspring
glorified!’
[The Younger Eros. Lays of Love and Life. 1916]
To those unfamiliar
with the name of Edwin Emmanuel Bradford, it is enough to say he was a minor
poet in the uranian school of poetry which centred around the Oxford colleges and an Anglo-Catholic who
became a Modernist clergyman and a sense of satisfaction will no doubt be
achieved. But to those few who appreciate Bradford’s
poetry a little more than the average versifier’s flourishes upon the sanctity
of the cult of boy-love, he is a greatly understated poet with very scarce
biographical details concerning his life and loves. It is with this in mind
that I set out to uncover a few facts about his life and parentage, some
surprising, which may go a little way in explaining certain psychological
traits and maybe some time in the future an in-depth work on Bradford will
appear.
Edwin Emmanuel
Bradford was born in Newton Abbot, Devonshire
in 1860 to parents Edwin Greenslade Bradford and Maria Wellman. His father,
Edwin Greenslade Bradford was born in Wolborough, Devonshire
in 1818 (Baptised 27th February) and his occupation was a goldsmith
and jeweller, having premises at 8 the Strand,
Torquay (1).
Maria Wellman was born
in 1820 (Christened 24th December) at Hawkchurch in Dorset. She died in 1873 in Newton Abbot, Devonshire. Edwin and Maria were married in 1844 at
Axminster in Devon.
Edwin Emmanuel
Bradford was Baptised at St. Luke’s Church, Warren Hill, Torquay and he was the
youngest of eight children born to Edwin Greenslade and Maria, all born in
Newton Abbot, Devonshire: Ella Maria Bradford (b 1845), Amelia Hembrew Bradford
(b 1846), Edwin Reginald Bradford (1849-1857), Henry Louis Bradford (b 1850),
George Frank Bradford (b 1851) (2), Ada Bessie Bradford (b 1854), Rosa Kate
Bradford (b 1856) and Edwin Emmanuel (b 1860).
In the 1851 census
Edwin G Bradford is living in Tormoham, Devonshire
(Newton Abbot) – Victoria Parade. He is 33 years old and a ‘goldsmith and watch
maker’. With him is his wife Maria, 28 years old, daughters Ella M, 6 years old
and Amelia H, 4 years old and his two sons, Edwin R, aged 2 and Henry L, aged
1.
In the 1871 census at
the same address, Edwin G is listed as a ‘silversmith’ and Ella and Amelia are
both ‘assistants’ (at their father’s jewellery shop) and there have been three
new additions to the family: Ada B, aged 15, Rosa K, aged 14 and Edwin E, aged
5. They have two servants named: Emma Searle, aged 36 from Southampton, and
Mary Pike, 21 from Kenton, Devonshire.
Edwin Emmanuel
attended Castle College School
in Torquay before going up to Exeter
College, Oxford, matriculating on 20th October 1881 at the
age of 21. He was awarded a 3rd Class Hons B.A. in Theology in 1884
and an M.A. in 1901, B.D. (Bachelor of Divinity) in 1904 and D.D. (Doctor of
Divinity) in 1912.
In 1884 he was
appointed Deacon and ordained as a Priest the following year at St. Alban’s
Cathedral. He held curacies at High Ongar, Essex
(1884-1886), Walthamstow (1886-1887) and was assistant Chaplain at the Anglican
Church in St. Petersburg
(1887-1889) and at St. George’s
Church, Rue Auguste
Vecquerie, Paris
(1890-1897) (3). He also held curacies at Eton
(1899-1905) and Upwell (1905-1909) before becoming Vicar of Holy Trinity
Church, Nordelph in Norfolk
from 1909 until his death in 1944.
MONTAGUE
‘My heart went out to
Montague;
Did his respond to
mine?
His smile said “Yes;”
his eyes did too.
But still I sought a
sign.
I sought a sign the
whole day through,
But ‘twas not till the
night I knew.
And how did I divine?
By this – that when we
bade adieu
One moment more than
others do
He left his hand in
mine.
‘Twas as we stood
alone, we two,
Beneath the stars with
none to view,
For a moment more than
others do
He left his hand in
mine.’
[The Romance of Youth and Other Poems. 1920]
A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
Edwin Emmanuel was
thirteen years old when his mother Maria died in September 1873. Edwin’s
father, who by all accounts had been a devoted husband, became increasingly
depressed after the loss of his wife and his mind became gradually unbalanced.
He succumbed to suicidal thoughts and sometime around midnight of Saturday 16th May 1874, he took his
own life by cutting his throat with a bread knife; he was fifty-seven years
old. This double tragedy must have affected young Edwin terribly. Details about
the death can be found in the Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser, dated Saturday 23rd May 1874
and I make no apology for producing it in full as it is interesting in the
facts it reveals about Edwin Greenslade and his father James Bradford:
‘Suicide of Torquay
Tradesman Mr. Edwin Greenslade Bradford, jeweller, of the Strand,
had committed suicide by cutting his throat with a bread knife late the
previous night or early the same morning. The inquest was held at the residence
of the deceased on Monday afternoon, [Monday 18th May 1874] before Mr. H.
Michaelmore, coroner. The Jury composed as follows: Mr H Crockwell (Foreman),
and Messers J C Wreyford, G Turner, J Fogan, Jas Blackmore, J Hammick, R
Bartlett, P Michaelmore, C Narracott, G Clow, W D Marler, W Watson jun. and
Capt. Graham. The Jury having viewed the body, the following evidence was
adduced: - Jane Maria Redway, a domestic servant, said she lived with the
deceased, and about quarter to seven on Sunday morning she was coming towards
the landing, and had gone up three stairs, when she saw the body of her master
lying along the landing covered in blood. She immediately went back again and
told Miss Bradford [either Ella or Amelia Bradford who were recorded as
‘assistants’ in the 1871 census]. After the body was removed she found the
knife, and she saw it on the table the previous night at supper time. She
removed the supper things at half-past six on Sunday morning, and when she did
so the knife was not there. It was almost directly afterwards that she
approached the landing and discovered the body of the deceased. She had been in
his service seven weeks, but during that time she had not noticed anything
peculiar about him. He went to bed about nine
O’clock on Saturday night, and after that she saw him; she asked
him if he was comfortable and if the fire was all right, and he said it was.
His brother, Mr Denis Bradford, was with him at the time, and stopped talking
to him until ten. On the previous Tuesday he said something to one of his
daughters which led them to think he was out of his mind, and they gave him a
sleeping draught to pass it off. She had heard Miss Bradford say she heard some
one go downstairs between eleven and twelve
O’clock on Saturday night, and she now thought it must have been
her father. – Mr Denis John Bradford, jeweller, of Victoria Parade, said he was
the brother of the deceased who was 57 years of age. He had been in the habit
of frequently visiting the deceased since his wife’s death in September last,
and there could be no doubt he had much altered since then. He (witness) came
up to his house about nine O’clock
on Saturday night, and then found him in bed. He had been suffering for several
months past from a pain in his throat, and during their conversation he said
that the pain was going from his throat to his head. He said nothing, however,
which led him to think he was premeditating destruction. He left him within a
few minutes of ten O’clock
still in bed. He never complained of anyone ill-treating him, or of his being
in difficulties with regard to money matters. He had, however, often since his
wife’s death, said he heard a voice speaking to him and saying, “what are you
doing here? One half of you is buried in the grave.” During his wife’s life she
and the deceased lived on the most affectionate terms. (Mr Bradford gave his
evidence under the influence of much emotion.) – Dr Charles Radclyffe Hall said
he had known the deceased for upwards of twenty years, and during the last year
and a half he had been in occasional attendance upon him. He had been suffering
from general feebleness of health and relaxed throat. He had had impressions
that the sensation to his ears and nostrils in consequence would lead to
something serious, but he told him that was a mistake. He had always been
depressed about his health, and since his wife’s death he had been much more
depressed. He had just recovered from a slight attack of pleurisy, and he
advised him that he would soon get well if he could get a change of scene. He
was only waiting for the west winds to pass away, when he was to go away for a
time to renovate his health. On the previous Tuesday witness called, and Miss
Bradford told him that her father, who was out at the time, had not slept for
ten nights. He left a prescription for a sleeping draught, which was given the
deceased, and the draught was repeated every night. The deceased appeared
refreshed in consequence, and when witness saw him on Saturday he was
particularly bright and cheerful. He told him then that there was nothing the
matter with him which a change would not remedy. The last time he saw him was
on Saturday evening. He (witness) was riding on horseback, and as he passed
deceased, who was walking in the Torbay
Road, he nodded to witness in an unusually
cheerful manner for him. Miss Bradford had mentioned to him that her father
said the sleeping draught benefited him, and made her promise that, if he went
out of his mind, she would not have him sent to an asylum. – Mr Wm. Pollard,
surgeon, said he was called at half-past seven on Sunday morning, to come to
the house of the deceased at once. On arriving he was told by Miss Bradford
that her father had killed himself. He found him lying on his back on the
landing on the first flight of stairs. He examined him, and found he was dead,
with his throat cut. The knife was lying close by his right hand, as if it had
just been dropped. The wound in the throat was just such as that which a man
would inflict on himself. He attended deceased previous to his wife’s death,
but beyond holding exaggerated ideas of the complaint in his throat he had not
noticed anything peculiar about him. There was an immense gash in the throat.
The body was quite cold, and the deceased must have been dead many hours. The
deed was no doubt committed between eleven and twelve the previous night. The
deceased was in his shirt and stockings. He knew that his father was once
placed under restraint for insanity, and that he died in a lunatic asylum. –
The coroner said he had called before the Jury what he hoped they would
consider sufficient evidence to prove that the deceased was not in a right
state of mind at the time the deed was committed. He wished to spare the
members of the family as much as possible and unless the Jury wished, he did
not propose to call any more of them. The Jury concurred in these remarks, and
immediately returned a verdict of Temporary Insanity. The fees were given,
through Sergt. Ockford, to the Torbay Infirmary.
The funeral took place on Wednesday morning [20th May 1874] in the Torquay Cemetery. Mr H Crockwell was the
undertaker.’
PASSING THE LOVE OF WOMEN
‘And when our lips meet at a time like this
It is our souls and not our mouths that kiss!’
[Childhood and Age. In Quest of Love and Other Poems. 1913]
Edwin Emmanuel
Bradford wrote several volumes of poetry which reflected his fatal allure for
young adolescent boys. He is often classified as a uranian poet, a group of
Victorian Oxford undergraduates who mainly studied Classics and wrote
homoerotic verse with themes of Ancient Greece and distinctly saccharine
sentimentality. Bradford however, moves away from the statuesque gods of
antiquity and gazes upon the lusty rustic youths who work the fields and forests,
not the pre-pubescent cherubs worshipped by certain uranians since William
Johnson Cory’s ‘Ionica’ in 1858; Bradford’s erotic motivation, not unlike
Wilde, is a Platonic sense of devotion upon the lower class youth who sweats
and toils for his living. In his poetry, Bradford
succumbs to these not so delicate creatures and gives his heart freely and
celebrates the purity, strength and beauty of the young adolescent males to
whom he is attracted with a romantic sense of chivalry. Many of his poems are written
in the narrative ballad style which one sees in Browning and the poet declares
his infatuations with no sense of shame. His first volume of poems, ‘Sonnets,
Songs and Ballads’ (1908) has many fine examples of his uranian yearnings as in
‘Sundered’ where ‘the aching pain of that long, long night / will last till my
life is o’er!’ and in ‘Hush! Speak no more’ where Bradford
asks ‘how can I love you as you are while / true to him I lost?’ and again in
‘Side to Side’ where he reveals that ‘dark suspicion marked us out / as guilty
of a ruthless crime, / and worthy but to die!’
‘“Passing the love of
women!” Harsh and rude
This strikes on modern
ears, but even yet
There’s something
forceful in’t, and in the mood
We feel it still. When
passion’s sun is set,
And years have cooled
the fever in the blood,
The friend is all in
all! Who that has met
The “one man in a
thousand” can forget
His firm, strong love?
He calls not evil good,
As women do to save
the cherished name
Of one they honour,
but more noble far,
He faces naked Truth –
sees all that shame
Hides from the world,
and takes us as we are;
And fearing not our
deepest stains to scan
Beneath the sinner
sees and loves the man!’
[Passing the Love of Women. Sonnets, Songs and Ballads. 1908]
Many of Bradford’s poems take the active as opposed to the
passive form, we enter into a world in which a scene is unfolding and again we
see Bradford’s quest for a spiritual love in
another sonnet which seems to awaken a religious ecstasy in the poet:
The Child Divine
‘Methought I saw in
visions of the night
The Child Divine,
concealed in mortal guise:
His head was bare, no
rays of heavenly light
Crowned Him divine,
but when His shining eyes
One moment met mine
own, I saw them bright
With more than human
love: the starry skies,
The world around, all
faded from my sight,
And I was lost in
heavenly ecstasies!
Since then I seek Him.
Here and there I find
In one His smile, in
one His tone of voice,
And in a third signs
of His mighty mind;
Then I look up, take
courage, and rejoice.
But when in one I see
revealed His Heart,
Him from my love nor
death nor hell can part!’
In another volume of
poetry, ‘In Quest of Love and Other Poems’ (1913) the poet takes on the mantle
of Tennyson in the title poem which runs to 166 four line stanzas in seventeen
parts; the poem expresses Bradford’s ideal of perfection and beauty in the form
of youth which speaks of love of various kinds in different nations:
‘My friend, a merry
Irish boy,
Made sport of all. In
careless play
We passed the livelong
summer’s day,
And love seemed but an
idle toy.
But once, as on the
sands we lay,
We kissed: and
thereupon a flame
Of passion pure that
knows no shame
Showed Love
full-grown. March passed to May
Without an April. Life
became
Like the rich rapture
of a song
That throbs with
ecstasy. Not long
Could bliss like that
endure. A name
Alone remains. First
of the throng
That Love has
lightened, first and last
Love of any boyhood,
he has passed
Beyond the reach of
change or wrong.’
[In Quest of Love]
Bradford’s Platonic desire of youth manifests fully in
the poem ‘Free Love’ which begins:
‘A lover of woman must
learn to be
Content with one, and
leave the rest;
But a lover of lads
can do like me –
Make love to a hundred
equally
And still love one the
best.’
The poem ends
triumphantly – ‘I’ve kissed young boys in dozens!’ But in the collection ‘Lays
of Love and Life’ (1916), the poem ‘No Love is Carnal’ makes it quite clear
that his fascination for young boys is purely beyond the physical intimacy –
‘Who loves the body
only? Grind it small,
Bring him the bloody
mass – give him the whole.
Is he content? Nay,
when he has it all,
All is but naught
without the informing soul.’
We get the impression
of Houseman in the poem ‘When I went a-walking’, with its ‘I thought of him all
day, / and dreamed of him all night’ and perhaps more so in the poem ‘Take it,
lad, or leave it!’ with its melancholy acceptance of love as an offering –
‘Here’s a loyal and
loving heart,
Take it, lad, or leave
it.
Say the word before we
part –
Take it, lad, or leave
it.
Hoity toity! where’s
the use
Of playing with me
fast and loose?
Kiss – or kick me if
you choose.
Take it, lad, or leave
it!
All I have is freely
yours,
Take it, lad, or leave
it.
Love – or turn me out
of doors!
Take it, lad, or leave
it.
Shilly-shally, yes and
no,
Won’t win a friend or
check a foe.
Hold my heart, or let
it go –
Take it, lad, or leave
it!’
In the 1920 collection
‘The Romance of Youth and Other Poems’ the poet says it is ‘boyhood I worship
rather than the boy’ [‘Boyhood’].
We get another glimpse
of Bradford from one of our finest poets for on Sunday 8th December
1935 the poet John Betjeman spent a delightful day with E E Bradford in
Nordelph, and wrote the following day in his journal: ‘Nordelph is miles away in
the Norfolk fens, a village of two-storey houses most of them sloping on unsafe
foundations strung about with telegraph poles and electric poles. Had
inestimable privilege of spending Sunday with the Reverend E E Bradford DD, author
of Passing the Love of Women and many other volumes of verse. He had been vicar
of Nordelph since 1917 [sic] and is now 75. A modernist, but likes ritual. Last
boyfriend called Edmund. Not had a boyfriend for 30 years. V happy with
Nordelph. A Saint & thinks laws against sexuality wicked cruel and out of
date. Said the Queen asked for one of his books. Obviously a joke played on him
poor old thing. Got his DD for proving St
Paul contradicts himself on the subject of free will.
Advocates birth control and says that logically Onan is a must… should be
permitted in public schools. Service fairly well attended. Children get a penny
for coming, kept in little boxes in a draw of his desk. Plays organ himself.
Candles on red altar, black cloths. All candles lighted. Sermon v abstruse and
clever on certainty of God. Talked of Julian Huxley – Cold supper at the
vicarage. Felt the better for seeing such a saintly and sweet little man…
Surely never did a bad thing in his life.’ (4)
In the 1911 census
Edwin Emmanuel Bradford is at Nordelph, aged 50 and single, a ‘clergyman
established church’ and he has one servant named Gertrude Mary Bellamy, aged 27
from Lake’s End, Christelwich, Upwell.
Reverend E E Bradford
died on Monday 7th
February 1944 and the Probate, dated 13th May 1944 names the beneficiary
as Sarah Esther Beales who was his housekeeper to whom he left his property and
belongings. He will be remembered as a gentle man who wrote of the elevated
passion that exists between man and boy beyond the physical exuberance of
intimacies that in today’s world are greatly misunderstood.
‘He that can see in
Love impurity
In any form, or in the
least degree –
Love, naked,
shameless, wild – no saint is he,
But a low fool, or a
cold-blooded sot.’
[Pure Love. In Quest of Love and Other Poems. 1913]
NOTES:
- Edwin Greenslade’s brothers James
(1814-1879) and Denis (1826-1911) had a watchmaker and jewellery business
called ‘Bradford Brothers’ at 4 Victoria Parade, Torquay, and at 7
Victoria Parade was James Bradford, watchmaker and jeweller (this was
Edwin Greenslade’s father James Bradford (1783-1851?). [White’s Directory
of Devon. 1850] James was christened on 24th February 1783 at
Witheridge, Devonshire, the son of
William and Elinor Bradford. James married Betty Bowbeer on 25th March 1813
in Wolborough, Devonshire. Betty died in
1832 and was buried on 8th May of that year in Wolborough. In
the 1851 census James Bradford is at Tormohan, Devon
(Newton Abbot) living at Victoria Parade. He is 71 years old (born in
Witheridge, Devonshire) and a widower.
His profession is ‘watch manufactory’. Living with him is his daughter
Eliza, 40 years old and unmarried, who is an ‘assistant in jeweller’s
shop’, and his son Denis, aged 23 and unmarried. He is a jeweller also.
With them is a servant named Mary Dennis, aged 23 from Brixham, Devonshire.
- George Frank Bradford went up to Exeter College, Oxford, matriculating on 19th January 1872,
aged 20, graduating with a B.A. in 1876. In the 1911 census he is single
and living in Poole, Parkstone,
Dorsetshire as a School Master. He is 59 years old and with him is his
sister Ada Bessie, single and 56 years old. There is also one servant
named May Philpott, 18 years old from Southampton.
- Edwin was co-Chaplain in Paris with his friend and fellow uranian,
Rev. S. E. Cottam (1863-1943) whom he met at Oxford. Samuel Elsworth Cottam went up
to Exeter College, Oxford, matriculating on 4th June 1881,
aged 17 and graduating with his B.A. in 1885. Cottam published his
collection of verse ‘Cameos of Boyhood and Other Poems’ in 1930.
- John Betjeman. Diary entry for Monday 9th December
1935.
