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Ernest Bradbeer
Southerndown/Reading
Ernest Arthur was the 11th of 14 children in the Bradbeer family and born in Berrow in 1899. Of the ten brothers, one died in childhood and the other nine went on to become golf professionals.
He left school at 13 and went to work on the links. He recalled caddying for 9d (that's pre-decimalisation pennies) a round (a nickel at the moment but a nickel may be something to treasure post-Brexit). He left home at 16 to be assistant to his brother Charles at Hendon in North London.
He and seven brothers served in the First World War (another had died while working as a professional golfer in London and Fred was too young). They all survived but Ernest, in the Machine Gun Corps, was badly wounded just four days before the Armistice.
In recovering, he struggled to hit the ball at all but persevered and was rewarded with his first full professional's post in Wales at Southerndown in 1923. He played down his tournnament golf but he, with brothers Jimmy, Bob and Fred, uniquely qualified for the final round of the Open Championship in 1928.
The Calcot Park club opened in 1930 and Ernest became its first professional with £100 annual retainer and the West Lodge rent free (that's a lot of 9d's). He was part of an interesting event in 1938, the first golf professional to record a television instruction programme, a series of eight he did with the BBC. He loved Calcot Park and it loved him.. The members showered him with gifts on his 25th anniversary in 1955.
He was chairman of the PGA in 1956, re-elected in 1957 and Captain in 1960.
Ernest retired from Calcot Park in 1968 and died the following year on 19 February.
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