Frederick Maxwell BRADSHAW

BRADSHAW, FREDERICK MAXWELL. (b. Melbourne, Vic; d. Melbourne, 11 May 1992). Barrister and Presbyterian elder.

Son of J W and E M Bradshaw, and descended from strict Presbyterian Puritan and Scots-Irish, Max Bradshaw was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne (MA, LLM). His investigation of his family's history led him to believe he was descended from Chief Justice John Bradshaw a signatory of the death warrant of Charles 1. Admitted to the Bar in 1936, he became eminent in the equity field. He did not have a reputation of being good with juries or in cross-examination but he was quite awesome in his grasp of the issues in documents and affidavits. He was an authority on the history of the legal profession in Vic, and particularly the Bar. He never took silk, doubtless being content to work on his own according to the exacting standards he set himself.

An old-school Calvinist, he was elected elder of Hawthorn (Vic) Presbyterian Church in 1941, and procurator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia in 1959. He served on Scotch College (Melbourne) Council for many years. His skill was vital in the continuation of the Presbyterian Church after the formation of the Uniting Church in 1977, while he also gave valuable help to smaller Calvinistic denominations, particularly to the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia. An unostentatious, warm-hearted and humble man, Bradshaw possessed vast stores of knowledge of things legal and Presbyterian. His remarkable memory and sense of history made him an invaluable source of information on anything to do with the constitution of Scottish Presbyterianism and discussions with him were frequently enlivened by historical anecdotes. His books include Scottish Seceders in Victoria (1947), Melbourne Chambers Memories (1962) and The Law of Charitable Trusts in Australia (1983). He was survived by his wife (Jillian), whom he married in 1960, and daughter Rachel.

R S Ward, The Bush Still Burns (Melbourne, 1989) 356, 437-64; Melbourne Bar Jnl (July 1982), 30-1; Presbyterian Banner (PCEA) July 1982

ROWLAND S. WARD