Joseph Bradney

Colonel Sir Joseph Alfred Bradney, FSA, BA, JP, DL (11 January 1859, Greet, Tenbury Wells, Shropshire – 21 July 1933) was a British soldier, historian and archaeologist, best known for his multivolume A History of Monmouthshire.

Life
Joseph Bradney was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He acquired, partly by inheritance and partly purchase, Tal-y-Coed Court, an estate at Talycoed, Llanvihangel-Ystern-Llewern, near Monmouth, where he settled at an early age. He entered the army, serving as captain of the Royal Monmouth Engineer Militia from 1882 to 1892, and lieutenant-colonel commanding the 2nd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment from 1892 to 1912. In the Territorial Force Reserve from 1912 to 1919, he served in France in 1917-18.

Bradney was High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1889, a county councillor from 1898 to 1924, and an alderman from 1924 to 1928. He was also a governor and on the Council of the National Library of Wales and the National Museum of Wales. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in Wales. He was appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1911, and knighted in 1924.

He wrote extensively on the history of Monmouthshire, his major work being A History of Monmouthshire, published in four volumes comprising 12 parts, from 1904 until 1933. A final fifth volume, drawing on his notes, was published posthumously. The books have been described as a "monumental survey, extensively illustrated and containing dozens of pedigrees, [which remain] a basic reference work essential for the serious study of local history or genealogy in Monmouthshire."

He was married twice, first to Rosa Jenkins (d. 1927), and then to Florence Prothero. A Latin tablet in St. Michael's Church at Llanvihangel-Ystern-Llewern records his achievements.

Works

 * Genealogical memoranda relating to the families of Hopkins of Llanfihangel Ystern Llewern, Co. Monmouth, and Probyn of Newland, Co. Gloucester, 1889
 * A History of Monmouthshire: From the coming of the Normans into Wales down to the present time, 4 vols, 1904-1933
 * (ed.) The diary of Walter Powell of Llantilio Crossenny in the county of Monmouth, gentleman 1603-1654, 1907
 * (ed.) Llyfr Baglan : or The book of Baglan, by John Williams, London: Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910
 * A History of the Free Grammar School in the Parish of Llantilio-Crosseny in the County of Monmouh (1924)