William Bradley (Royal Navy officer)

William Bradley
Born	1758 Portsmouth
Died	13 March 1833
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1772 to 1812
Rank	Royal Navy Rear-Admiral (struck off)
Battles/wars	French Revolutionary Wars • Glorious First of June Napoleonic Wars

William Bradley (1758–13 March 1833) was a British naval officer and cartographer who was one of the officers who participated in the First Fleet to Australia. During this expedition, Bradley undertook extensive surveys and became one of the first of the settlers to establish relations with the aborigines, with whom he struck up a dialogue and whose customs and nature he studied extensively. He later however fell out with his aboriginal contacts and instead undertook a mission to gather food which ended with an eleven-month stay on Norfolk Island after a shipwreck.

Bradley's later career was overshadowed by his steadily deteriorating mental state. Although a successful small ship commander, Bradley became increasingly erratic and was eventually retired as a result. A few years later, suffering serious mental problems, Bradley committed a highly unusual case of postal fraud and was ultimately exiled. He never returned to Britain but lived in quiet disgrace in France.

Bradley was born on 14 November 1758 in Portsmouth, a great nephew of the Astronomer Royal James Bradley. His family was closely associated with the Royal Naval Academy and both his younger brother James and his father John Bradley served on the faculty. Bradley entered the Royal Navy in 1772, and served on a rapid succession of ships before becoming lieutenant in 1778. He continued in service aboard HMS Lenox, HMS Aldborough, HMS Mermaid, HMS Rippon, HMS Prothee, HMS Phaeton and HMS Ariadne until 1786, when he joined HMS Sirius. His service during the American Revolutionary War was not significant, but Bradley was attached on the Sirius to the First Fleet destined to colonise Australia.

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