Geoffrey BRADBURY. Flying Officer, Royal Air Force. Born 24 July 1904 to Mary Louisa and Joseph Bradbury of (1911) 61 Clonlee Drive, Strandtown, Belfast. Died of injuries 20 May 1928 following accident on 8 May 1928 at Holbeach Bombing Range Gedney Drove End, The Wash, Lincolnshire in an Armstrong Whitworth (AW)Siskin IIA, J8402 of No.41 (Fighter) Squadron.
At rest in Kings Lynn Cemetery, Norfolk.
Commemorated on a family headstone in Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.
Short extract taken form the book called School of Aces -
Sutton Bridge, 1928.
Prior to his death he flew down to the range, and made several passes over target No 4. His method of approach to the target was a flat glide, throttle back, nose down towards the target. On one glide he failed to pull out. It appeared that the plane had recover but the undercarriage his one of the creeks that criss-cross the marsh which was torn away from the plane. The plane disintegrating in an explosion. He was pinned underneath the wreckage unconscious for an hour before rescuers reached him. He was rushed to King’s Lynn hospital, but died of his injuries 12 days later.
STRAPPED IN SUNKEN PLANE as reported 21 September 1926 by The Western Argus newspaper, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Pilot Officer Geoffrey Bradbury, of the Royal Air Force, had a re-markable escape from drowning when the Snipe machine he was flying near Rhos-on-Sea North Wales, developed engine trouble, and came down in the water a quarter of a mile from the shore, on the Colwyn Bay side of the pier. Immediately the machine struck the water it turned turtle and sank with Pilot Officer Bradbury in it.
A motor boat put out, and after a few minutes Pilot Officer Bradbury was seen swimming around.
He was picked up and taken to a hotel. Pilot Officer Bradbury told a reporter that while under the water he managed to pull the quick releasing apparatus which freed him from the straps by which he was held in his seat.
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