Aust. Historical Medals

Lot 805    Session 3 (2.30pm Tuesday)    Aust. Historical Medals

Estimate $2,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

JUBILEE MEDAL 1935, by the Royal Mint presented to Dr. J.J.C. Bradfield, C.M.G. 23 Park Ave., Gordon. Toned extremely fine.

Together with official presentation letter 6th May 1935 from Buckingham Palace and envelope registered Sydney, 6D 13 May 1935. John Job Crew Bradfield was born on 26 December 1867 at Sandgate, Queensland the fourth son of English immigrants who had arrived ten years earlier. He was educated at North Ipswich State School and then won a scholarship to Ipswich Grammer School passing his Senior public exams in 1885 winning the medal for chemistry. He was dux of the school, won the Queensland government university exhibition and in 1886 matriculated at the University of Sydney. He then continued his studies from St Andrew's College graduating as a Bachelor of Economics winning the University Gold Medal in 1889. Bradfield started his working career as a draftsman under the chief engineer for railways, Brisbane. He married in 1891 and shortly after he was retrenched so he joined the New South Wales Department of Public Works as a temporary draughtsman becoming permanent in 1895. Throughout this period he was continuing his studies and in 1896 he graduated M.E. with first class honours and won the University Medal. He founded the Sydney University Engineering Society in 1895 and was president in 1902-3 and 1919-20. In his 1903 presidential address he highlighted the competition, initiated in 1900, for the design of a bridge across Sydney Harbour. Bradfield designed the Cataract Dam and the Burrinjuck Dam. In February 1912 he proposed a suspension bridge to connect Sydney to North Sydney and shortly after submitted a cantilever design. The following year the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works recommended acceptance of his scheme to construct a cantilever bridge from Dawes Point to Milsons Point and his title was changed to Chief Engineer for metropolitan railway construction. His plans for the railway system were brilliant in their planning in which he proposed the underground rail system and even the eastern suburbs railway line which was not implemented until many years after his death, albeit on a different route to that proposed by Bradfield. Under his watch the St James and Museum Stations were opened as part of the city loop, something that was not completed until 1955 with the construction of Circular Quay station which had been designed by Bradfield. John Bradfield was heavily involved in the construction of his proposed Harbour Bridge and was sent overseas to inquire into tenders for its construction. In 1924 he recommended that Dorman Long & Co of Middlesbrough, England be awarded the contract. When Bradfield retired in 1933 the director of public works stated that Bradfield was the designer of the bridge and said, 'no other person by any stretch of the imagination can claim that distinction.' However he was never to receive credit because Dorman Long had some modifications made to his design by its consulting engineer, Sir Ralph Freeman, and thus claimed the credit and threatened to sue of Bradfield's name was placed on a plaque as designer. Bradfield, however, was a member of the official party at the opening and the governor Sir Philip Game named the bridge highway after him. John Bradfield went on to other projects. He was the designer and consulting engineer for the Story Bridge in Brisbane; joined the board of the Hornibrook Highway as technical adviser to the constructors; helped plan and design the University of Queensland's new site at St Lucia; and published a proposal for diverting water from some coastal rivers to water the western side of the Great Dividing Range (Bradfield Scheme). The Bradfield Highway and the electorate of Bradfield are named in his honour. Bradfield had many qualifications and honorary qualifications. Some of his honours include being appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the New Year Honours of 1933; Fellow of the Senate of the University of Sydney; 1932 awarded the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal by the Institution of Engineers of Australia; 1934 awarded the Telford Gold Medal by the Publications Committee of the Institution of Civil Engineers of London for his paper 'The Sydney Harbour Bridge and its Approaches'. John Bradfield died at his home at Gordon on 23 September 1943. A memorial service was held at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, later buried at St John's Cemetery.