Henry Joseph Steele Bradfield

Who was Henry Joseph Steele Bradfield?

Henry Joseph Steele Bradfield was a colonial official and author.

Bradfield was born on 18 May 1805 in Derby Street, Westminster, where his father, Thomas Bradfield, was a coal merchant. Whilst still under age he published in 1825 Waterloo, or the British Minstrel, a poem. He was bred to the art of surgery, and on 26 April 1826 left England in the schooner Unicorn in Lord Cochrane's expedition to Greece, during which he was present in several engagements by land and sea. After his return he published The Athenaid, or Modern Grecians, a poem, 1830; Tales of the Cyclades, poems, 1830; and in 1839 edited a work entitled A Russian's Reply to the Marquis de Custine's “Russia.”

On 1 Sept. 1832 he received from the King of the Belgians a commission as sous-lieutenant in the Bataillon Etranger of Belgium, and was appointed to the 1st regiment of lancers. At one time he held a commission in the Royal West Middlesex Militia. He was appointed on 31 Dec. 1835 stipendiary magistrate in Tobago, from which he was removed to Trinidad on 13 May 1836. He was reappointed to the southern or Cedros district on 13 April 1839, but soon returned to England, having been superseded in consequence of a quarrel with some other colonial officer.