Long before the buff and sculpted lifeguards of Baywatch were even an idea, Essex pier-keeper William Bradley was a tour de force in carrying out heroic rescues. The Victorian-era action man was forever leaping into the frozen waters of the estuary to rescue stricken swimmers...
You could call William Bradley the Mitch Buchannon of his day, but he’d most likely balk at the comparison- and who can blame him? Bradley had more true grit than all the characters from the 1990s’ US TV drama put together.
Bradley was once the pier head and light keeper at Southend and won countless awards for bravery during his career. Over his 21 years working and living at the end of Southend Pier- where he and his family had a humble wooden shack- Bradley saved at least 19 lives – probably a lot more.
When someone deliberately leapt in or fell into the water off Southend Pier Bradley would be galvanised into action. He’d take off his shoes and jump 16ft into the freezing water below to rescue them. He’d also take out his own small lifeboat to help stricken sailors during storms over the estuary.
Bradley was the third ‘Shanty’ (the pier head keeper) at Southend. The first was a man named Pepper who served for 30 years, followed by a man named Palmer who lasted for four years, Bradley took over the job in 1870.
In the early days of the town drownings were a frequent occurrence in the estuary. There was even a morgue situated underneath the old wooden pier. It was the most sensible place to put it seeing as a good percentage of the bodies that came through there did so due to drowning.
While he was the Southend Shanty, Bradley seemed to spend more time in the water than out of it. He was given a number of medals and financial rewards for his heroics but he was a modest man and often asked people he had saved not to ‘make a fuss’.
On one occasion when a boy fell overboard Bradley dove off the pier into the chilling estuary waters without even stopping to strip off his own heavy clothes. When later asked about the event, he smiled: 'There have been so many times I can’t remember them all.'
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In 1887 the Silver Medal was awarded to Bradley for rescuing a man from the capsized steam tug Jubilee on the night of November 2.
That night Bradley was called from his bed and without waiting to dress lowered his boat, rowed to the casualty who was clinging to the upturned boat, and brought him to safety. In 1888 he was honoured by the people of Southend for his gallantry when he was presented with a special timepiece and a purse of £50.
For some time Bradley kept a scrapbook with cutting from newspapers about his rescue antics, however it got to the point he was saving so many people he stopped bothering to tell the papers about it. Surprisingly Bradley admitted that despite saving the lives of so many boys and girls, “very few thanked me”.
It wasn’t uncommon for people, however, to cheer and applaud as William Bradley dove off the pier to rescue yet another poor soul. It became an almost tourist attraction.
One boy who did thank Bradley, however, was Henry Humphry, a clerk at Southend Post office who was rescued by Bradley on Easter Monday 1884 after he somehow slipped between the pier and a huge steamer ship.
Several times when Bradley jumped into the water, he himself became trapped and almost drowned. He never let go of whomever he was rescuing however, even if it meant they had to grip onto the pier’s stanchion piles until help arrived.
After retiring from his role as the pier head keeper at Southend William Bradley, then aged 41, became the coxswain of Southend’s first lifeboat.
In 1901 Bradley- who by all accounts was tee-total and smoked very little to keep up his fitness levels- was elected to Southend Town Council and in 1919 he was made an Alderman.
He described what Southend was like in its fledgling years: 'When I was a boy there was almost nothing of Southend beyond Royal Terrace and the southern end of High Street and the old town of Marine Parade,' he said.
'The rest of the High Street was nothing more than a lane and Victoria Circus- now the busy heart of the most modern town in England- was a country road.
'Cliff town was lined with extensive orchards.
'The Cliffs were rugged slopes of earth that were continually crumbling and being washed away at the foot of the sea.
'It was not until the 1800s that they constructed about a mile of narrow esplanade to protect the cliffs.
'There was a coastguards house on top of the Cliffs near where the Westwood Ho Hotel now stands.
'Further along stood an old windmill, a well-known landmark. The Cliffs ran wild with rabbits.'
William Bradley died two years later, in 1932, aged 82 at his home Gladstone House in Hartington Road, Southend.
By this time, he had risen to become one of the richest property owners in Southend and he left the bountiful sum of £43,000 to his widow and two daughters.
His funeral was held at St John’s Church in Southend. Hundreds of people attended the service to pay their respect to a much-loved character in the town and a man described by mourners as “one of Southend’s sons”.
Perhaps the most poignant quote that Bradley ever gave was after he was presented with an award for rescuing yet another child. He tried to turn down the honour, saying: 'When I jumped in, I didn’t think about being given anything. Although I have children of my own when anyone falls overboard, I should think it the duty of an Englishman to jump in after him.'
You can find out more about William Bradley at the Southend Pier Museum which is open at weekends and free to enter. The museum is located near to the entrance of the pier. Among the artefacts on display is a huge wooden chest of drawers that William Bradley personally crafted out of salvaged wood from a shipwreck. The dresser was placed in his home at the end of the pier for many years and later donated to the museum by his great-granddaughter. Southendpiermuseum.co.uk
