Rupert Dudley Bradfield, farmer and naturalist, was the son of Daniel Bradfield and his wife Julia Victoria Turvey. He became interested in birds at an early age, worked as a transport rider during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and afterwards farmed in partnership with his father on the farm Nottingham, in the Glen Grey region of the Transkei. During World War I (1914-1915) he took part in the South West Africa campaign (1914-1915, now Namibia) and for some time resided at Swakopmund. In 1920 he bought the farm Quickborn, in the Okahandja district, and started farming there.

Bradfield was particularly interested in birds. While at Swakopmund and at Quickborn he collected birds and mammals also in the Waterberg of Namibia and the Namib desert and sent them to Austin Roberts* at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria. Roberts described many of them in the Annals of the Transvaal Museum in 1928. Bradfield also collected birds for the British Museum and collaborated with many overseas authorities. Included in his collections were two new species, Bradfield's Hornbill, Tockus bradfieldi, and Bradfield's Swift, Apus bradfieldi. From Quickborn alone, between 1924 and 1933, Roberts described eight subspecies of mammals and three of birds, many of which were named after him. However, Roberts eventually refused to comply with Bradfield's demand that all new races of birds and mammals which he was the first to collect should be named after him. As a result Bradfield stopped sending specimens to Pretoria and began to describe them himself. He described some of his discoveries in a privately published pamphlet, Descriptions of new races of Kalahari birds and mammals (1935) which contained mainly new records and new taxa of birds, but also of some mammals. The text of this pamphlet was reprinted in The Auk (published in the United States, 1936) and in the local journal The Ostrich (1952) and hence became more accessible to ornithologists. However, the names that Bradfield introduced were not recognized, except the genus of the Herero chat, Namibornis. He also published two articles in The Ostrich, dealing with the crested cuckoos of South Africa (1931) and unusual experiences with birds (1932).

Bradfield also made extensive plant collections, among others at Benoni in 1934. His specimens are housed in the herbarium of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown, the National Herbarium in Pretoria, and at Kew Gardens.

Bradfield became a member of the South African Ornithological Society in 1930, the year it was founded. In April 1908 he married Margaret Elizabeth Denison and had a daughter who did many of the illustrations in a book on Namibian birds published in 1934. Later in his life Bradfield moved to the Transvaal and settled in Benoni. where he continued his observations until at least 1936.

List of sources:

Clancey, P.A. Scientific ornithology in South West Africa. South African Museums Association Bulletin, 1959, Vol. 7(3), pp.47-51.

Clancey, P.A. The founders of South West African ornithology. Bokmakierie, 1989, Vol. 41(2), pp. 41-45.

Clinning, C. Southern African bird names explained. Johannesburg: Southern African Ornithological Society, 1989.

Dictionary of South African biography, Vol. 5, 1987.

FamilySearch: Rupert Dudley Bradfield. Retrieved on 10 October 2023 from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPHW-RSVB and https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6J4S-HCDV

Gilliland, H.B. On the history of plant study upon the Witwatersrand. Journal of South African Botany, 1953, Vol. 19, pp. 93-104.

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za/ , publications by R.D. Bradfield.

Gunn, M. and Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Hockey, P.A.R., Dean, W.R.J. and Ryan, P.G. (editors). Roberts birds of southern Africa, 7th edition. John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, 2005.

Phillips, E.P. A brief historical sketch of the development of botanical science in South Africa and the contribution of South Africa to botany. South African Journal of Science, 1930, Vol. 27, pp. 39-80.

Rosenthal, E. Southern African dictionary of national biography. London: F. Warne, 1966.

Rupert Dudley Bradfield. British 1820 settlers to South Africa. Retrieved on 24 August 2021 from https://www.1820settlers.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I63232&tree=master

Skead, C.J. Zoo-historical gazetteer. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums, 1973, Vol. 10. See "Quickborn".

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2023-10-10 12:45:14