Professor Tony Bradshaw

Aug 28 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

NEAR the end, the new certificate hung on the wall above his bed. He smiled in that shy way of the Englishman, who knows deep within that he deserves it, but will always be too modest to tolerate such a suggestion from others.

Yet, the words, saying he was the first recipient of Liverpool’s Citizen of Honour award, were much appreciated on those days, when the curtains on the window were closing, slowly.

Outside were the things he loved.

“Ah, the humble buttercup,” he had exclaimed one day, many years earlier, as he stepped, ankle deep in wild flowers, his head protected from the noon sun by a trusty straw hat.

And there was joy in his voice for those buttercups growing in profusion along with ox-eye daisies, cowslips, meadow vetchling and ragged robins on the reclaimed Pickerings Meadow, rising from the salt marshes on the Widnes side of the Mersey.

He knew all the flowers’ names and could recognise them as friends in their culsters, spreading free. For botany was the profession of Anthony (Tony) Bradshaw and land reclamation was his passion – well, that and sailing his boat, Arabella, on the Norfolk Broads.

Tony was born in Richmond, Surrey, to Harold Bradshaw, an architect, who had trained in Liverpool, and his wife, Mary, an archaeologist.

The boy attended St Paul’s School, Hammersmith, advancing to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Botany, later gaining his Phd at Aberystwyth University. This led to his lectureship at Bangor University.

In 1968, Tony came to Liverpool University as chair of botany, having by then married Betty Alliston, with whom he would have three daughters, Jane, Penny and Sarah, brought up in the family home in Cressington Park.

He retired 20 years later to become emeritus professor and senior fellow of botany. During his years here, Tony, was involved in campaigns to make better use of our land.

In more recent times, Tony, who was widowed in 2000, teamed up with some pals to restore St James’ Gardens, beneath Liverpool Cathedral, into a public park.

He was profoundly moved a few days before his death to be visited by Steve Rotherham, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, who presented him with the certificate.

Friends are welcome at Tony’s funeral service in Liverpool Cathedral at 12.30pm a week tomorrow (September 5).

Professor Tony Bradshaw, botanist, born January 17, 1926;Š died August 21, 2008.