Memories of "Mal"

From Mark Blackwell and James Miller


Charterhouse
Mike was supposed to complete his secondary education with Mr Schlich at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford but his parents moved to America so he had to transfer at short notice to a boarding school and chose Mr Miller’s establishment, the local arch-rivals Charterhouse.

Mike should have been a Charterhouse Foundation Scholar but he transferred in too late to take the exam; nevertheless, he jumped a year into the Remove 1A class, at the top of the year above the 4th form, with the twelve Scholars and twelve best pupils moving up from 4A.

At the Quarterly “calling over” in which the class was paraded in front of the Headmaster underneath the Charterhouse Oak, he was a regular performer in the top 5 in the class. Indeed, he did not make a mistake in maths for a long time, getting the reputation of being like a computer. When he did slip up, people said he had “mal-functioned” and he was for ever more known to Carthusians as “Mal”.

Mike Bradbury was a Sutton Prizewinner in 1985. He was also awarded the Eustace Dallin Wade prize for Physics in 1982 and the Poole Prize for Biology in 1983. He was Deputy Head of House and a Library Monitor

In the 6th form, Mal studied double maths, physics and chemistry. He took the 4th term entrance and received a “two Es” offer from Trinity. However, he passed out of school with a clean sheet of “four As and two Ones”.

The five other members of his tiny further maths class went up as follows: “Ows” Osborne, now in the family firm of civil engineers, Christchurch; “Gorm” Allen, now a partner at Goldman Sachs, Balliol; Nige Medhurst, now an accountant, Trinity; “Jimbo” Miller, St John’s; and Chris Doran, now Fellow and Director of Studies in Natural Sciences at Sidney Sussex, Sidney Sussex. The quite brilliant Alison “Baffy” Deans followed Mal up to Trinity and then McKinseys; and the crazy man of the bunch Dave “Hogman” Hodges went up to Magdalene then founded Pet Doctors.

Cambridge
Mal turned up at Trinity to read Natural Sciences but changed to Engineering on the first day. While at Trinity he became increasingly good at photography and had a go at rowing.

By now, the Minotaurs were in existence and Mal became wary of attending The Stomp for fear of being thrown into the canals at the back of the Colleges by his new band of Minotaur friends. Indeed, in one term he included a ringer from Magdalene in his gents boat, the very chunky vet and former Carthusian “Hogman”, and they made a good effort to throw Mr Miller in the canals on The Stomp.

Mal was not prone to horsing about all of the time – he failed to get high-billing on the night of the Old Carthusian Society raid on Oxford when his old school housemate “Gorm” took a ducking in the Christchurch fountain, “Hogman” was arrested for bicycle theft and Mr Miller narrowly escaped into Balliol - although while inter-railing Mal was unexpectedly arrested in France with “Hogman” and Mr Miller on the hopelessly French charge of “picnicking without wine on a 2CV bonnet in a public place”.

Towards the end of his time at Trinity, Mal became interested in manufacturing and management generally. He was often at St John’s and would have long discussions about management with Mr Blackwell for many years to come. He served with distinction as Best Man at Mr Blackwell’s first wedding.

Mike, Wendy, Natalie and David Hodges at Mark and Caroline's wedding

Years later Mike would also enjoy the friendship of Mark’s second wife, Caroline, especially at his home in Eye, Suffolk which he loved so much. After learning something of country ways Mal did finally realise why Mark was no longer in London at weekends during the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis.

Joel and Billie Schlich, George Schlich, Caroline and Mark Blackwell, Mal
half way round the classic walk from Mike's house in Suffolk on his birthday last year

McKinsey & INSEAD
Upon Graduation, it could only be the best for Mal and he went to McKinsey, the blue bloods of management consultants. McKinsey paid for his MBA at INSEAD where his reputation for academic excellence continued – as well as his friendship. He remained very close to many of his INSEAD cohort in London for many years including Alex “Boo” Oliver, Andrew Brown, Arthur Smith, Francis Smulders, Karim Abboud, Omar Abbosh, Paul Owers and others the author has not had the pleasure of knowing.

Smallbone
After INSEAD, he took up the post of MD at Smallbones kitchens, where he met his wife-to-be Wendy Sage. Anyone would think that Mal would have whipped through the old-fashioned English kitchen furniture builders, Smallbones, with a vengeance, out-sourcing the manufacturing to the Far East, but not a bit of it. He could recognise quality when he saw it and how this could be interlinked with marketing: he was very proud to note many years after leaving Smallbones that their cabinets were still each built up one at a time, by hand, by an English craftsman in Devizes.

The last years
In recent years, Mal worked at the consultants, Marakon, were he was preparing to become a partner this year.

When Mal didn’t turn up for the Minotaurs reunion at the Bumps in 2006, some might have thought it was because he was too worried about wearing a blue blazer to the Dinner. However, he was scheduled to come but was by then battling with cancer and did not feel up to it.

Nevertheless, a few days after, he and Wendy were able to attend a performance of Cossi fan Tutti at Glyndebourne (pictured), with three Minotaurs (Messrs Arias, Schlich and Miller) and their other halves.

Mal really placed his trust in science. He was confident of pulling through until the very end and well aware that he was riding on a wave of new technology. For some time, he and others thought had caught the wave successfully, but he sadly had a relapse a few months ago. He was, however, thrilled to be able to marry Wendy at last on June 22 in the hospital.

Wendy supported Mike tirelessly to the very end and gave him great comfort and love. May we remember to support Wendy. She loved and cared for a great friend of ours – and Mike would want us to look after her now.

Mark Blackwell
James Miller