May Bradford Shepherd

Bradford was born in Bega, New South Wales and grew up in Rubyvale, Queensland where her father, John 'Charles' Bradford, had been involved in the mining industry as a prospector and washing plant owner since approximately 1902.

Having been a member of Fitzgerald's circus, Charles with his wife Emily, was also the proprietor of Bradford's Surprise Party Circus and Piano Orchestra which featured members of the Bradford family performing musical and comedy numbers and offering a program of acrobatic and trapeze acts held within their own marque or inside meeting halls throughout Far North Queensland in the early 1900s.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76372242 |title=Barcaldine AND District Budget |newspaper=The Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-Western Districts |volume=XXVII |issue=732 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=22 January 1906 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55811069 |title=SAPPHIRE TOWN. |newspaper=Morning Bulletin |volume=LXVII |issue=12482 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=23 December 1905 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55581703 |title=The Late Miss May Bradford |newspaper=Morning Bulletin |issue=22,001 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=29 January 1937 |accessdate=23 January 2018 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70555266 |title=MR. C BRADFORD. |newspaper=The Central Queensland Herald |volume=5 |issue=202 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=9 November 1933 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=24 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71036466 |title=FROM THE SAPPHIRE MINES. |newspaper=Worker |volume=15 |issue=673 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=26 March 1904 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76372154 |title=Barcaldine District Budget |newspaper=The Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-Western Districts |volume=XXVII |issue=731 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=15 January 1906 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}

May Bradford was an accomplished horse rider, competing in shows and being awarded the fastest time ever recordered by a man or woman for hunt riding on the Brisbane Showground in 1920.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201413610 |title=WOMAN'S RECORD AS PILOT-ENGINEER. |newspaper=The Evening News |issue=4246 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 February 1936 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=12 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212201447/http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201413610 |url-status=live }} She was also an expert rifle shot and sportswoman.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51198276 |title=GIRL Builds PLANE For CENTENARY Race |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=I |issue=47 |location=Australia |date=28 April 1934 |accessdate=24 January 2018 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} Bradford followed her father's second profession and became a qualified gem expert selling sapphires and opals.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17305892 |title=MAY BRADFORD. |newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald |issue=30,909 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=26 January 1937 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=17 (Women's Supplement) |via=National Library of Australia}}

She married Francis Shepherd (10 April 1894 – 20 November 1933) in Rockhampton on 24 November 1919.{{cite book|title=Far North Queensland Pioneers and Settlers Registers to 1920|publisher=Cairns Historical Society}} They had two sons, Francis 'Frank' Roy (15 August 1921) and Henry 'Harry' James (11 November 1923), before her husband's death from injuries sustained some years earlier at Galipolli in World War I.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135182007 |title=BIG FLIGHT PLANS |newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate |issue=18,810 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=26 January 1937 |accessdate=23 January 2018 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Bradford became interested in aviation after overhearing a conversation in a cafe about how an Australian woman would never undertake the flight made by Amy Johnson between England and Australia in 1930.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17271804 |title=FORMERLY GEM EXPERT — NOW AN AIRWOMAN. |newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald |issue=30,856 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=24 November 1936 |accessdate=27 January 2018 |page=17 (Women's Supplement) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201413610 |title=WOMAN'S RECORD AS PILOT-ENGINEER. |newspaper=The Evening News |issue=4246 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 February 1936 |accessdate=27 January 2018 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=12 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212201447/http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201413610 |url-status=live }} Bradford received flying lessons from Captain Harold Livingstone Fraser at Connor Park before moving to Brisbane to continue training at the Queensland Aero Club. She funded her lessons by selling gems, achieved her pilot's licence in 1931 and started working as a commercial pilot.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55581224 |title=Victim Of Plane Crash Miss Bradford Trained At Rockhampton |newspaper=Morning Bulletin |issue=21,998 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=26 January 1937 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201282668 |title=ATTRACTIVE GIRL FLYER FOR ROCKHAMPTON |newspaper=The Evening News |issue=3088 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=30 July 1931 |accessdate=24 January 2018 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite web|title=May Bradford Shepherd|url=http://ethw.org/May_Bradford_Shepherd|website=Engineering and Technology Wiki|date=2 June 2017 |accessdate=23 January 2018|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123190809/http://ethw.org/May_Bradford_Shepherd|archivedate=23 January 2018|df=dmy-all}}

Bradford spent at least four years as an apprentice mechanic at Sydney Airport and worked as a ground maintenance engineer for New England Airways. She had purchased her own aircraft, a Klemm Eagle but, being unhappy with the paintwork, sanded it back and repainted it in red, black and gold. She choose her own insignia, a golden eagle, and designed it herself based on one she saw on display at the Sydney Museum. She outfitted the interior of her plane with grey silk, included book holders and named it the Golden Eagle.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17271804 |title=FORMERLY GEM EXPERT — NOW AN AIRWOMAN. |newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald |issue=30,856 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=24 November 1936 |accessdate=26 January 2018 |page=17 (Women's Supplement) |via=National Library of Australia}}

Bradford crashed a De Havilland D.H. 60 Moth VH-UQT in a paddock one mile south of the Goulburn Aerodrome on route to Mascot Aerodrome on 2 December 1933 at 2.15pm. She escaped practically unhurt but was suffering from the effects of shock {{cite news |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230190578 |title=Girl Pilot in Crash - Escaped death by her skill |newspaper=The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954) |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=3 December 1933 |access-date=1 December 2024 |archive-date=9 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709083215/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230190578 |url-status=live }}

File:May Bradford, at Parafield.jpg for the Adelaide Centenary Air Race]]

In 1936, she was one of the five female pilots in the Adelaide Centenary Air Race along with Nancy Bird, Lores Bonney, Freda Thompson and Ivy May Pearce.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17271087 |title=Women Entrants In Centenary Air Race. |newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=22 October 1936 |accessdate=23 January 2018 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}} She completed the race in her Golden Eagle which was able to reach a ground speed of 175 miles per hour. While she was forced to stop the race on a number of occasions to tend to her aircraft, as a licensed engineer Bradford was able to undertake the repairs herself.{{cite web|title=May Bradford Shepherd|url=http://ethw.org/May_Bradford_Shepherd|website=Engineering and Technology Wiki|date=2 June 2017 |accessdate=23 January 2018|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123190809/http://ethw.org/May_Bradford_Shepherd|archivedate=23 January 2018|df=dmy-all}}{{cite web|title=The 1936 South Australian Centenary Air Race|url=http://www.saam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SAAM-Profiles-1936-SA-CENTENARY-RACE.pdf|website=South Australian Aviation Museum|accessdate=23 January 2018|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024318/http://www.saam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SAAM-Profiles-1936-SA-CENTENARY-RACE.pdf|archivedate=4 March 2016|df=dmy-all}}

Bradford offered joy rides around Sydney in her plane and would transport people where ever they required. She was planning a flight to London before she was killed with her passengers, Mrs Harriett Mastery (known as Miss Coley) and Miss Ellen Lattimer, when her Klemm Eagle clipped the wing of a plane being piloted by George Hoskins at Sydney Airport on 24 January 1937.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150551946 |title=MASCOT TRAGEDY. |newspaper=The Northern Herald |volume=94 |issue=1251 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 April 1937 |accessdate=23 January 2018 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135182007 |title=BIG FLIGHT PLANS |newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate |issue=18,810 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=26 January 1937 |accessdate=23 January 2018 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41290517 |title=MASCOT DISASTER. |newspaper=The West Australian |volume=53 |issue=15,838 |location=Western Australia |date=1 April 1937 |accessdate=23 January 2018 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite web|last1=Goodall|first1=Geoff|title=B. A. EAGLE IN AUSTRALIA|url=http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/ba-eagle/baeagle.html|website=Geoff Goodall's Aviation History Site|accessdate=23 January 2018|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123190923/http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/ba-eagle/baeagle.html|archivedate=23 January 2018|df=dmy-all}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/2867431040/ A 1934 photograph of May Bradford], by Sam Hood, in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales.
• Movie 'The Raiders' which May Bradford played a lead actress role

{{Commons category-inline|May Bradford}}

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Category:1897 births

Category:1937 deaths

Category:Australian aviators

Category:Women aviation pioneers

Category:Australian women aviators