Eric Blackburn Bradbury
Surgeon Vice-Admiral Sir Eric Blackburn Bradbury KBE, CB was a British Royal Naval Medical Officer who served as Medical Director-General of the Royal Navy Medical Service.
He was born in Maze, County Antrim, Northern Ireland and educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen’s University, Belfast. After graduating MB in 1934, he joined the Royal Navy as a Surgeon Lieutenant. From 1935 to 1936, Bradbury served in HMS Barham, Endeavour and Cumberland and at Royal Navy shore hospitals in Haslar, Chatham, Plymouth and Malta. During the Second World War, he served on HMS Charybdis and HM Hospital Ship Oxfordshire.
In 1966, Bradbury was promoted to Surgeon Rear Admiral and appointed medical officer in charge of Haslar Hospital, the Royal Navy's senior teaching hospital. He was also the commanding medical officer of Portsmouth and an honorary physician to the Queen. Bradbury was made a Companion of the Bath in the 1968 New Year Honours.
In 1969, he was appointed Medical Director of the Royal Naval Medical Service, a post he held until 1972. In 1971, Bradbury was promoted Surgeon Vice Admiral and made a Knight Commander of the British Empire in the 1971 Birthday Honours. He was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1972.
Bradbury died in 2003 and was buried in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He had married in 1939 Elizabeth Constance Austin, with whom he had 3 daughters.
