Bradshaw’s motorcycles

Granville Eastwood Bradshaw OBE, AFRAeS (Associate Fellow Royal Aeronautical Society) was born to William Semptimus Bradshaw and Annie Bradshaw (nee Eastwood) on December 8, 1886 (some sources state 1887) in Preston, Lancashire.

For his war effort work during the First World War, he was awarded the OBE. In 1932, the Hatry group – with whom Bradshaw as a naive businessman had become financially embroiled – collapsed with debts of over £14m. In an effort to keep afloat and pay off debts, Granville sold his home and assets, but this wasn’t enough. In 1936 he was declared bankrupt. It is believed his brother Ewart then helped him financially and in March 1938 he was released from bankruptcy.

Although after bankruptcy he continued to design a wide range of items including motorcycles and associated components, he also earned income from lecturing. Bradshaw was twice married (Violet Partridge and Muriel Mathieson) and twice divorced, the father of five children (by Violet, Pamela and Geoffrey Lionel Guy and by Muriel, twins Pamela Eleanor and Vyvien Hope, and Peter Frewin Granville) before meeting Francesca King while working for the Admiralty during the Second World War. They became friends with Francesca variously his housekeeper, companion and financial supporter. They parted in 1964, and after living in rented accommodation provided by his youngest son Peter he moved to Peter’s house in Hitchin, Hertfordshire where he died on April 13, 1969.

Leaving school aged 13, Granville was first a junior clerk in a solicitor’s office while studying engineering at night school, before following his older brother Ewart’s footsteps by starting an apprenticeship with the English Electric Manufacturing