William Hardwick Bradbury

His original intention was to study for the Bar, but printing was in his blood and instead he spent a two-year 'apprenticeship' working in publishing and bookselling in Dublin before joining the family firm of Bradbury and Evans, then in Bouverie Street in London.

It is claimed that Bradbury and his older brother Henry Riley Bradbury (1829-1860) joined Frederick Moule Evans, son of their father's business partner Frederick Mullett Evans, in printing the serialisation of Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield, published in twenty parts between May 1849 and November 1850.

[7] Furious at their refusal, Dickens immediately cut all business and personal connections with them, returning to his old publisher, Chapman and Hall.

When his business partner Frederick Moule Evans left the firm in 1872, it received the much-needed financial backing of Sir William Agnew and his brother Thomas.

[1] William Hardwick Bradbury died at his home, Oak Lodge, Nightingale Lane in Clapham, Surrey, on 13 October 1892.