Olive Bradbury was born on 9th August 1921 in Liverpool. Her family lived in Thingwall Road in Childwall. She was the youngest of four, and her father Arthur worked as a teacher in Liverpool. As a child she gained the pet name Boodle, shortened to Boo. Exactly why is shrouded in the mists of time, but it stuck: the Bradburys have known her as Boo ever since. She was also known as the Bisto Kid, after the child in the advert always coming into the kitchen, nose in the air, asking what is for dinner. She was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School for Girls, usually known as Blackburne House, as was her elder sister, Constance. There are a number of books in the family collection showing that she won a number of prizes in the 1930s for her achievements in school. She was certainly proving to be a bright, intelligent girl. She already showing her inquiring, adventurous nature, and liked staying with relatives around the country and exploring the areas around where they lived. She also started youth hostelling in the late 1930s. Throughout her life, she was always happy to try new experiences, from hot air ballooning to painting bouquets of flowers gathered on a walk in the country. She would certainly have gone on to university, but for two things. Her parents had already supported two children through university and could not manage a third; and then, there was the war. In a typical manner, she decided to make the best of things. In 1940, she started work at the David Lewis Northern Hospital in Liverpool, training to be a nurse.
The photograph above was taken at this time. She qualified as a SRN in 1944. In 1946, she was working in Southport General Infirmary as a ward sister when she met a newly qualified doctor, Norman Coulshed. When he went to do his national service in the RAF, she travelled around the USA for two years, supporting herself through various nursing posts and exploring the country in between jobs. The photo below was taken by a street photographer in San Francisco in 1948.
She made several long term friendships in the USA which lasted into the 1980s. Her letters home are full of her excitement at what she was doing, humour at some of the situations in which she found herself, and some forthright comments about life in America. She returned to the UK in 1949 and was met at Liverpool by Norman Coulshed. She married him in 1950 and had three sons: Mark, David and John. She made a loving home for her family, and her support created space for Norman’s pioneering work at the regional cardiac centre at Sefton General Hospital on Merseyside. The family home at Woolton Hill Road was always welcoming, and many family celebrations took place there. After her sons had all started school, Olive retrained as a teacher and for more than 10 years taught maths and science at Blackburne House. All through her life, she looked for new things to discover and learn about, and attended many courses and events. The house in Woolton was full of books on a wide range of topics that she had purchased, from religious books to history, philosophy and even russian grammar!. She was a voracious reader of fiction. Her favourite author of all was Jane Austen, and when she saw a Hollywood version of “Pride and Prejudice” she reacted strongly, callling it a ‘travesty’. After that, any version of a story that the family encountered that seemed wrong was a ‘travesty’.
Olive put up good naturedly with a lot of teasing from the male family members, but she was capable of giving as good as she got. She instilled in her sons a love of reading, and also a love of the theatre and art. She enjoyed going to London to see exhibitions and plays, and visit family members, and her sons Mark and John continue this habit to this day.
Olive and John at Woodgate, 1967
She loved the Lake District, and spent as much time as possible in the holiday home near Ulverston, tending the garden and walking up the lane. She took pleasure in making jams and wine from the berries gathered on these walks. Her room looked towards the Old Man of Coniston, and she loved sitting in the window and admiring that view through the change of the seasons and different weather conditions. She exercised to keep herself fit, and climbed the Old Man with her son David when she was seventy years old. She ran a keep fit group for her friends in Liverpool, even if it was as much a talking group as an exercising group. Olive supported many charities, but in particular worked for women’s organisations including the peace group Voice of Women. After her retirement in 1983, she devoted much time and effort to Unicef, for which she was a regional organiser and served for some years on the national committee. She also found time to gain a degree in English Literature. Olive was a devoted gardener, saying that this act of creation was her response to the destructive tendencies of the wider world. She had a strong moral sense, rooted in the virtue of unselfishness, and was an inspiration to all around her. In late 2004 she suffered right-side paralysis following a stroke and was thereafter dependent on nursing care. She remained the same loving person, interested in all around her. Her determination not to give up and strong character that still shone through despite her disabilities was amazing. She died in Liverpool in September 2010.