Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/231

 station Dr. Beaumont amputated the arm without chloroform. The patient's quiet courage saved his life. As soon as Bradford's health was restored, he gradually resumed his former pursuits, hunting, shooting, and even spearing boars with his reins held between his teeth. He met in after life with frequent falls, yet his nerve never deserted him up to his death.

Returning to duty, he filled various political offices, where his magnetic influence attracted to him the ruling chiefs and nobles of the native states under his supervision. After serving as political agent in Jaipur, Baghelkand, Bhartpur, and Meywar he was selected by the viceroy, Lord Northbrook, to be general superintendent of thagi and dakaiti (8 May 1874), an office which controlled cases of sedition as well as organised crime, and called for much tact in his relations with the various local governments and the ruling chiefs responsible for crime within their several jurisdictions. The viceroy, Lord Lytton, promoted him on 8 March 1878 to the supreme control of relations with the Rajput chiefs and the office of chief commissioner of Ajmir. There he smoothed over difficulties with the native states in the early days of railway construction, encouraged social reforms, and introduced municipal government into Ajmir. His influence with Indians was so well recognised, that he was attached to the staff of the duke of Edinburgh on Ms visit to India in 1870, to that of Edward VII when Prince of Wales on his visit in 1875, while in 1889 he accompanied Prince Albert Victor on his Indian tour. In June 1885 he was made K.C.S.I., and two years later was on the point of becoming resident at Hyderabad, when Lord Cross summoned him to the India office, London, as secretary in the political and secret departments. He refused the offer, 14 Feb. 1889, of the post of governor and high commissioner at the Cape, and was thus available when, later on, a grave crisis in London demanded the appointment of a commissioner of police endowed with sympathy and high moral courage. In June 1890 symptoms of disaffection in the ranks of the metropolitan police force were aggravated by the public announcement of grave differences between the commissioner, Mr. Monro, and the home secretary, Mr. Matthews, regarding police administration and in particular the rules of superannuation. After Monro's resignation thirty-nine men refused to go on duty (5 July), and a general strike of the men threatened unless their pay was increased and other concessions granted. Bradford had accepted the vacant office with hesitation on 20 June 1890. But he now acted with vigour, dismissing the thirty-nine men for insubordination, and sternly enforcing discipline; then he devoted himself to remedial measures. He visited every one of his police stations, which extended fifteen miles on every side from Hyde Park Corner, and listened to all complaints. He paid the greatest attention to recruitment and the physical and moral welfare of his men. Labour was economised by a judicious increase of stations, signal boxes, and fixed points for concentration. In their sports and recreations he took a constant interest, knowing his subordinates and being known and trusted by them. The term of hisoffice included the diamond jubilee and the funeral of Queen Victoria, the coronation of King Edward VII, the wild excitement over the relief of Ladysmith and Mafeking, and several disorderly meetings and processions of the unemployed. When he retired on 4 March 1903, he left a contented force of 14,470 effective men, excluding those on special duty at dockyards, maintaining law and order over a population of 6,700,000 souls. He was made A.D.C. to the Queen in 1889, G.C.B. on 22 June 1897, G.C.V.O. on 9 Nov. 1902, a baronet on 24 July 1902, extra equerry to King Edward VII in 1903, and to King George V in 1910.

After his retirement from the public service he acted as chairman of a committee to inquire into the wages of postal servants, but his chief interest lay in hunting and shooting. He hunted several days a week with the Bicester, Warwickshire, Heythrop, and Whaddon chase hounds. He died suddenly in London on 13 May 1911, and was buried in the churchyard at Chawton, Hampshire, beside his first wife. Eight police sergeants bore him to the grave. Bradford was married twice: (1) on 17 June 1866 to Elizabeth, third daughter of Edward Knight of Chawton House, Hampshire, a nephew of Jane Austen; by her (d. 21 May 1896) he had six children, of whom three died in India; and (2) on 25 Oct. 1898 to Edith Mary, daughter of William Nicholson of Basing Park, Hampshire, formerly high sheriff of the county and M.P. for Petersfield. She survived him with a daughter and two sons of the first marriage. His eldest surviving son, Major Evelyn Ridley Bradford, who served with distinction in the Egyptian and South African wars, succeeded him in the baronetcy. A portrait of Sir Edward, subscribed for by friends and painted by W. W. Ouless, R.A., hangs in the Mayo