Cyril Bradwell

Lives Lived | Harold Hill on a rugby-playing Order of the Founder member

Cyril R. Bradwell OF, QSO, JP, BCom, ACA, MA, was Promoted to Glory from Wellington Hospital, New Zealand, on Thursday 27 November, aged 92. A man who has been part of our landscape for as long as we can remember has gone from us. And what a man of many parts he was: sportsman and athlete, soldier, teacher, missionary, scholar, archivist and historian, friend, husband and family man, Rotarian and Justice of the Peace, Salvationist and local officer. Shakespeare might well have written of him, as he did of Brutus, “His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up, and say to all the world, “This was a man!”

Born in Christchurch, Cyril was adopted by a Salvationist couple. His father went off in search of work in the Great Depression and never returned but his mother made great sacrifices to ensure he had an education. After Christchurch Technical College (they could not afford for him to take up a scholarship he won to Christ’s College), Cyril began working as a cadet in the Justice Department. He went on to Canterbury University and completed accountancy studies before World War II.

A gifted sportsman, Cyril won the 1938 New Zealand hurdles title over 220 yards, was a Canterbury athletics champ before the war and team captain after it. He held provincial and national records, his provincial record for the 120 yards hurdles standing for 25 years. He was an Empire Games triallist in 1938. He also skippered a Salvation Army rugby XV, (they topped the local competition, to the consternation of the Chief Secretary of the day, who unavailingly forbade them to play) and remained an enthusiastic follower of the game throughout his life.

In the Middle East and Italy with the 2 NZEF during the war, Cyril played in the New Zealand Division’s band and served with the 6th Field Ambulance. He married Nola Carrington on his return in 1945 and went to Christchurch Teachers College. In 1947 he became the first holder of the American Field Service Scholarship for ex-servicemen to study in the USA where he graduated BA Honours in history, later completing his BCom and MA Honours degree at Canterbury.

In his teaching career, Cyril taught at Oxford District High School till 1951 and at Kisii High School in Kenya from 1951 till 1954. Back in New Zealand, Cyril taught at Waitaki Boys High School until the end of 1957 when he became deputy principal of the new Riccarton High School in Christchurch, a job he held until he was appointed principal of Wellington High School in 1968. He was awarded the Queen’s Service Order for community service in 1980. Cyril took early retirement in 1978 because Nola was diagnosed with cancer, but they had another twenty years together before Nola was Promoted to Glory in 1998.

Wherever he went, Cyril was firstly a Salvationist, serving as a local officer in several corps. He was Bandmaster at Linwood, where he was also YPSM, before the war. He became Bandmaster again at Linwood and then at Oxford after the war, Songster Leader at Oamaru, Corps Sergeant Major and Corps Cadet Guardian at Linwood again and finally CSM for many years at Wellington South. He was an enthusiastic and faithful bandsman in all these corps.

Cyril’s influence on the Army and upon individuals was immense. He fostered the Salvation Army Students’ Fellowship in the 1950s and 60s. A member of both the Public Questions Board and the Layman’s Advisory Council for some years, Cyril also chaired the Guardianship working group and the editorial board of Battlepoint quarterly magazine, and served on many other groups such as the 1989 Study Group on the influence of the charismatic renewal movement and was a Salvation Army representative to the Conference of Churches of Aotearoa New Zealand. His involvement in all these activities was always accompanied by a close interest in and support for individuals, young and old. He became the Army’s elder statesman in New Zealand, his wisdom and integrity being valued at all levels. His services were recognised with the award of the Order of the Founder in 1993.

Cyril’s 1950 MA thesis was the first academic account of the origins and development of The Salvation Army in New Zealand, a pioneering work. He contributed the section on The Salvation Army to the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, and a number of entries to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. One of his great gifts to the Army in New Zealand was the 1983 Centennial history, Fight the Good Fight, a thorough, erudite, insightful account, both scholarly and popular. Besides Corps histories for Linwood and Wellington South and numerous shorter papers, articles and monographs on various subjects, his two other major published works were his 1994 biography of his old friend, Commissioner Sir Dean Goffin, Symphony of Thanksgiving, and his own 2003 autobiography, Touched with Splendour. The book Te Ope Whakaora: the Army that brings life, opens with a paper Cyril originally prepared for a Waitangi Day seminar in Christchurch in 2003, and the recent publication, Many Voices in Mission, contains no fewer than six articles by Cyril in what was to be his last public writing.

Cyril was the founding chairman of the Salvation Army Historical Trust and with Major Laurence Hay was instrumental in setting up the Army’s Archives in New Zealand. Over the 30 years after his retirement from Wellington High School the Archives claimed a large part of his time and future researchers there will frequently come across pages of extra information or explanatory notes in Cyril’s handwriting. His scholarship and personal knowledge will thus continue to serve the Army’s future historians.

When faced in his 90th year with the virtual loss of his sight, so that he had at once to give up working in the Archives, driving his car, and playing in the Wellington South Band, Cyril faced this affliction with fortitude and without complaint. He never stopped buying new books and with the help of “talking books” and a team of readers, he continued to take a lively interest in everything - rugby, politics, literature, and the progress of his beloved Army. He attended everything he could - including the children’s playgroup at his Corps, in order to take an interest in and encourage the non-Salvationist parents who attended. He maintained his long-established and faithful prayer ministry of intercession. After a short period of illness, Cyril passed away peacefully in the presence of his daughters, Professor Helen May and Glenis Bradwell, as well as other family members.

Cyril was on first impression a somewhat formidable figure; large, and laconic to the point of gruffness, but when he did speak, always commanding respect for his wisdom and practicality. He was a staunch, loyal and generous friend, robust and forthright when need be, combining gravitas and humour. He was wise and honourable, kindly and utterly without pretension or self-interest. Paying tribute to his friend and colleague in Many Voices in Mission, Colonel Laurence Hay said, “Cyril Bradwell will best be remembered not for the positions he held or the honours he received, but for his deep and persistent loyalty to the mission and work of The Salvation Army, and for his personal interest in and encouragement of young Salvationists.” Cyril took the line “touched with splendour”, a quote from a song by John Gowans, as the title of his autobiography, not as claim to personal greatness but as an acknowledgement of God’s touch on his life. But our lives too were touched with splendour for having known him.

Writer: Harold Hill is a retired officer, who worked at Howard Institute in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe, and in corps, training and various admin jobs at THQ in New Zealand.

Tags: Order of the Founder

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