John Bradbury, 1st Baron Bradbury

Who was John Bradbury, 1st Baron Bradbury?

John Swanwick Bradbury, 1st Baron Bradbury GCB was a British economist and public servant.

Bradbury was born in Crook Lane, Winsford, Cheshire, the son of John Bradbury and Sarah Cross. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, The King's School, Chester and Brasenose College, Oxford, and joined the Civil Service in 1896. He served as Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer H. H. Asquith from 1905 to 1908, as Principal Clerk in the Treasury and First Treasury Officer of Accounts from 1908 to 1911, as Joint Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 1913 to 1919 and as the Principal British Delegate to the Reparations Commission in Paris from 1919 to 1925. During the First World War he was the government’s chief economic adviser.

He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1909, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1913, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath for his services as Principal Reparations Commissioner in the 1920 New Year Honours. In the 1925 New Year Honours, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bradbury, of Winsford in the County of Chester.

Lord Bradbury married Hilda Maude Kirby, daughter of William Arthur Kirby, in 1911.