Born in 1901 at St. John's, Newfoundland, Bradbury served in the British army from 1917 to 1919 when he joined HBC and was sent to Lake Harbour as a clerk. In 1920 he became Manager of the Frobisher Bay Post until 1923. After a furlough he returned as Post Manager of Amadjuak and Tukik (Arctic Bay) between 1924 and 1928. Bradbury published his Arctic memoir, Ten Years in the High Canadian Arctic, in 1994.