Harold Charlton Bradshaw [also known as H. Charton Bradshaw] was born in Liverpool, England on 15 February 1893. He enrolled as a student at Liverpool University School of Architecture in 1911 and graduated with Cert. Arch. in 1913. He was awarded the first Rome Scholarship in Architecture in 1913 and subsequently attended the British School at Rome, however his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War One in 1914
Bradshaw practised as an architect in London from c.1920. He also taught architectural history at the Architectural Association in London in the 1920s.
In 1923 Bradshaw was appointed First Secretary of the Royal Fine Art Commission and designed several cemeteries and memorials for the Imperial War Graves Commission including the Cambrai Memorial, with sculpture by Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885-1934), the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing and its cemetery with sculpture by Gilbert Ledward (1888-1960), and the Guards Division Memorial in St James’s Park, with sculpture by Ledward.
Other commissions on which Bradshaw worked included the restoration of Burningford Manor in Dunsfold, Surrey (1923); the Common Room-Dining Hall for the British School at Rome (1924); the coat-of-arms on the portal of the road tunnel at Penmaenmawr, North Wales in collaboration with Gilbert Ledward (1935); and designed branches of Lloyd's Bank at Caterham-on-the-Hill, Surrey and Caversham, Kent
Bradshaw exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and at the Paris Salon.
He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1918 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1929. In 1924 he was appointed the first secretary of the Royal Fine Arts Commission. In 1930, Liverpool University awarded him the honorary degree of Master in Architecture. He died in London on 15 October 1943 and is buried at the church of All Saints, Horsey-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. His son, Christopher John Chalton Bradshaw (1920-2004) was a graphic designer.
Burningfold Farm, Dunsfold ; Guards Memorial, London.
Marriott, Charles. Modern English Architecture. London: Chapman & Hall, 1924
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 101, 22 October 1943 p. 330
'Obituary'. The Architects’ Journal vol. 98, 21 October 1943 p. 283
Sharples, Joseph, Powers, Alan and Shippobottom, Michael. Charles Reilly & the Liverpool School of Architecture 1904-1933. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 25 October 1996 - 2 February 1997. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996 p. 167 [Contains other references to Bradshaw, unfortunately, the catalogue is not indexed]
Who's Who in Architecture 1926. Edited by Frederick Chatterton. London: Architectural Press, 1926