Bradford was born in
Walsall and played his youth football with
Bloxwich All Saints, before joining the Talbot Stead Tube works team (from which
Ted Hough was signed in October 1921) where he was spotted by scouts from Southampton and offered a trial. After a successful trial he signed a professional contract in September 1922 but didn't make his first team debut until 18 April 1924 in a
Second Division match at
Crystal Palace, replacing
Bill Turner at
centre half. He spent the first half of
the following season in the reserves until mid-February when he was called into the team at left half (with
George Harkus moving forward), and retained his place for the rest of the season. For the
1925–26 season he played approximately half of the league games and scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 victory over
Fulham on 10 April 1925. He missed most of the following season, unable to break into the established half-back line of
Bert Shelley,
George Harkus and
Stan Woodhouse. From
1927–28 onwards he was more regularly selected by manager
Arthur Chadwick, often filling in at full back in place of
Michael Keeping or
Ted Hough. According to Holley & Chalk, he was "
ideally built for a centre-back role (his) versatility was put to good use and in emergencies he would even play in goal". Midway through
the 1929–30 season he was moved to right-back taking over from Hough for the rest of the season, retaining his place at right back for the following season, in which he missed only three matches. Following the departure of manager Chadwick in April 1931, his replacement
George Kay signed
Frank Campbell from Scotland who was generally preferred to Bradford, who played in only about half the matches in 1931–32. By
the following season, with
Johnny McIlwaine taking a year out to play in the
Welsh League, Bradford was team captain, missing only four matches as Saints again finished in
Second Division mid-table obscurity. He continued to appear regularly over the next few seasons, and could be selected for any of the two full back and three centre back positions. After 14 seasons at
The Dell, Bradford eventually retired at the end of
the 1935–36 season. During this period he played under four managers and made a total of 319 appearances (with 7 goals); all his league matches were in the Second Division in a period during which the Saints struggled financially and were generally forced to sell their better players to survive. Bradford's loyalty and longevity earned him two benefit matches. After leaving the Saints, he became the licensee at the Plume of Feathers public house in
St Mary's Street. He also played one season with
Cowes Sports helping them to win the
Hampshire Senior Cup. He died in
Southampton on 13 April 1944 aged only 41 years. ==References==