John Champion Bradshaw
Epithet: Artist & Photographer (1847-1925)
Record type: Biographies
Town / Village residence: Douglas
Biography: In January, 1845, John Champion Bradshaw was born in Hulme, Manchester, to George Bagnall Bradshaw and Mary Dorothea Champion. His grandfather on the paternal side, John Bradshaw, was an artist.
Champion was the eldest of five children, one of his brothers being Joseph Cecil Bradshaw, who was also an artist on the Isle of Man.
It is unclear where Bradshaw learned his artistic skills, he was likely self-taught or influenced by family members. When he was 14 years old he had been working as an office boy.
In 1968, Bradshaw married Hannah Barton. They had three sons together, Leonard Barton, Earnest and Thomas Bertram. Thomas Bertram died at the age of 2, in 1874. The year after Grace Annie Bradshaw was born, but shortly after (or perhaps during childbirth as there is no birth certificate for Grace), Hannah died. Thomas and Hannah were both buried in Braddan Cemetery on the Isle of Man.
The family had moved to the island from Manchester in 1871.
It is likely that the reason for Bradshaw’s relocation to the Isle of Man coincided with the Manx tourist boom of the late 1870s-1880s, which persuaded many commercial artists from the United Kingdom to come to the island. This was due to cheap fares to and from the island offered by the IoM Steam Packet Co, good accommodation and entertainment on the island. When the family first moved to the island they resided in Peel, before going to Castletown in 1880. John Champion provided lessons in drawing, oil and watercolor and photography. He also advertised teaching pianoforte tuning during 1873 at Victoria Road, Douglas. He played the piano for Douglas Poor Relief Committee for 2 and a half years without pay.
Bradshaw became involved with many Manx societies and in the 1880s became involved with the establishment of the School of Art. He was one of the main supporters on the island of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
For an artist and photographer like Bradshaw, the art of photography was developing on the Isle of Man with new and better methods of film capture and reproduction of photographic images. For example, Finch Road, Douglas, became the location for photographers to practice their arts.
By 1881, John Champion was 34 years of age and living in Douglas. He was established as a portrait painter and photographer at an address in Finch Road, which was the base for photographers on the island.
In 1883, Bradshaw married Clara Jane Moore at St. Thomas’ Church on the Isle of Man. They went on to have three children: John Moore Bradshaw (1884), Edwin Douglas (1885) and Mabel Victoria (1887).
However, between 1891 and 1901, Bradshaw, Clara and Mabel left the island to go back to Manchester. It is likely that it was because of the Dumbell’s Bank Crash of 1901, as Clara had her savings and lost them with the crash.
John Champion Bradshaw, an established painter and photographer for the majority of his life, died at age 79 in 1925.
Occupation / profession: Artist
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 1847
External sources: 13 Mount Havelock, 40 Finch Road, 6 Finch Road, 11 Amos Street, North Manchester, Hunter's Tower, Stalybridge