Bramwell Stratford
from the rugby
1st XV 1951–52 team photo

Bramwell was born 14th November 1934 in Aberdare, the son of Evangeline¹ G. Stratford, (née Andrew) and George Frederick Stratford² a Life Assurance Agent. The home in Elm Grove also housed Bramwell’s two sisters and his maternal grandparents.

Bramwell entered Aberdare Boys County School in 1946 having received his primary education at Park Boys School. He gained eight GCE O‑levels in 1951, and in 1953 A-levels in Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology.

During his schooldays Bramwell was occupied with two main activities. Firstly, he participated in many of the activities of the Salvation Army, as did the other members of his family. The local paper was reporting recitations and songs contributed by Bramwell at Salvation Army meetings from the age of just 4. His father was at one time Bandmaster and conductor of the choir with the organisation. Secondly, Bramwell was heavily involved with the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade, Aberdare Division. He was Captain of the team that competed in the first aid competition in the Caerphilly National Eisteddfod in 1950. Later that year, the same team went on to compete in the St John Ambulance national finals in Central Hall, Westminster. In 1951, Bramwell was chosen to represent the Brigade in Wales at the opening ceremony of the Festival of Britain conducted by the King at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Bramwell
in 1951 at the time of the
Festival of Britain

In school, he was a member of the First XV rugby team in both the 51–52 and 52–53 seasons.³

After school he attended the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff graduating in 1960. He also spent a year at the Salvation Army International Training College⁴, Denmark Hill, London, where he considered becoming a medical missionary.

In the early 1960s he worked at different hospitals in south Wales and lived for short periods in Cardiff, Cwmbran and Newport.

However, in 1962 at the age of 27, he was involved in a very serious car accident that was to impinge on his health for the rest of his life. His car was in collision with a bus⁵ in Nelson when Bramwell and his passenger, a staff nurse, were travelling towards Pontypridd. At the time Bramwell was a senior houseman in obstetrics and gynaecology at St Woolos Hospital, Newport. There followed a slow recovery at Cardiff Royal Infirmary.

He returned to work in the NHS in 1970 and in 1978 became a consultant psychiatrist to the Oxford region, where he was also a subspecialty tutor to the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The consequences of the road accident eventually forced him into semi-retirement in 1983, when he returned to Wales. He worked as a consultant who did sessions in mental handicap at Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital, Cwmbran, and in child and adolescent psychiatry for Powys Health Authority. He became secretary and chairman of Gwent division of the BMA and a member of several medical societies.

In 1960 at Bridgend, Bramwell married Sheila Novello Manley, who was a nurse at the East Glamorgan Hospital. The couple raised three daughters and lived in Abergavenny.

Bramwell Andrew Stratford died on 22 April 1992 aged 57 at Carmarthen.

Footnotes

1. George F. Stratford. (1896–1962), was from Medway in Kent, and came initially to Aberdare for work in the coalmining industry. There are reports in the Aberdare Leader of his involvement with the Salvation Army from 1917 onwards.
2. Evangeline (Eva) Gladys Andrew, (1899–1993), was born in Kettering in Northamptonshire, but lived in the Gadlys, Aberdare, from a very young age.. She married George Stratford at St. David’s Presbyterian Church, High Street, Aberdare, in September 1918. They set up home Eva’s house at 1 Gadlys Cottages, Elm Grove.
   With regard to choice of family names it is interesting to note that William Booth, who became the Salvation Army’s first “General”, had several children, two of which bore the names Evangeline, and Bramwell.
3. Photographs of both teams can be found in the Sporting Activities section of this website. The teams in those years were particularly strong, not least because they also contained Keith Rowlands.
4. Bramwell›s older sister Audrey also attended this college in 1940.
5. The driver of the bus happened to come from Aberaman.

Acknowledgements

1. The obituary notice posted in the British Medical Journal, Vol. 305, No. 6866, Dec. 5, 1992.
2. Articles in archived copies of The Aberdare Leader and the South Wales Argus (Newport, Monmouthshire).

CR, October 2026