John Bradley (27 November 1916 – 14 December 2002) was an English footballer who played as an inside forward for various clubs in the 1930s and 1940s, including Swindon Town, Southampton and Bolton Wanderers. Playing career Bradley was born in Hemsworth, West Yorkshire and, after playing youth football with South Kirkby, he joined Huddersfield Town in November 1935. He did not make any first team appearances for Huddersfield, and in August 1936 he was transferred to Swindon Town of the Third Division South. Bradley spent two seasons with Swindon, making 25 league appearances in which he scored six goals. In the FA Cup he scored twice in a 6–0 victory over Dulwich Hamlet in the First Round on 28 November 1936. The following season, he went one better scoring a hat trick (including two penalties) in a 4–3 win over Gillingham on 27 November 1937, his 21st birthday. In June 1938, he moved to Chelsea but again made no first team appearances before being transferred to Southampton in May 1939. Southampton He joined Southampton in readiness for the 1939–40 season, but had not broken into the first team before League football was abandoned following the outbreak of the Second World War. At the start of the war, he joined the Police War Reserve and remained in Southampton, playing in the Football League South war leagues. In 1940, Bradley joined the Royal Air Force and his postings took him all over England. During the war he guested for several clubs, including Grantham Town, where he made 20 appearances in the 1945–46 season, Reading, Luton Town, Blackpool, Millwall, Aldershot, Rotherham United, Hereford United and Rochdale. He returned to The Dell in 1945 and was soon scoring regularly in the League South in 1945–46, with 14 goals from 25 league appearances, plus two in the FA Cup. According to Holley & Chalk, Bradley was "big and strong, (with) a powerful left foot that he put to good use during his short spell with the Saints". On the resumption of League football in 1946, Bradley became the established inside left, with either Doug McGibbon or George Lewis at centre-forward. The outside left position was filled in turn by Bobby Veck, Wilf Grant and Eric Day as manager Bill Dodgin was assembling a team to try to gain promotion from the Second Division. Bradley finished his first League season with the "Saints" as joint top-scorer