Songs for a vagabond of God – music inspired by John Bradburne

There has been a great deal written about John Bradburne and his extraordinary life. 

The son of an Anglican vicar, he turned restless wanderer and poet, war hero, self-proclaimed “vagabond of God” and Catholic convert – a profoundly spiritual man who devoted the last ten years of his life to the care of the impoverished leprosy patients at Mutemwa, Zimbabwe. His earthly death came in 1979, when he was abducted and shot by guerrillas. 

Now, 40 years later, thousands of pilgrims make their way to Mutemwa every year, and his Cause is well underway at the Vatican, which will culminate in him being canonised a Saint.

My family lived in Zimbabwe (or Rhodesia as it was known) in the 1950s and ‘60s and were great friends with John.

My father Patrick, a devout Catholic (who died just 4 months before John was shot), edited a magazine for the Catholic community called The Shield. John Bradburne was a frequent contributor with his poetry, and also helped with proof reading. The two of them hit it off and became great friends. 

My parents asked John to be my godfather and he happily agreed. John used to visit our house in Harare (Salisbury) and stay over, sleeping on the floor in my nursery. 

Our family returned to England in 1970 and one of my most treasured possessions is an exercise book, which I believe John gave to us when we left (my mother can’t remember precisely when), inscribed to my father, filled with John’s handwritten poetry. 

For the March 1965 edition of The Shield, my father interviewed John in the grounds of Harare Cathedral. They covered several topics, including John’s conversion. My father asked “Why did you become a Catholic?”

John replied: “I wanted to be sure of salvation. I came to the conclusion that there could not be more than one true Church that Christ had founded, and by the Grace of God I got there. 

“There was in me a great desire to belong to a society which could embrace a maximum, and not an exclusive minimum of people on the way to Heaven.”

Although I have no memory of meeting him in person, John has been an inspiration and guide to me throughout my life.

I’ve been a musician all my life. During the first lockdown in 2020, I decided to fulfil a long-held ambition to set some of my godfather’s beautiful religious poetry to music.

John started writing poetry in earnest in spring 1948 – “during my first Spring in the Church” as he told my father in the same interview. His reception into the Catholic Church at Buckfast Abbey was an event he would regularly cite in his poems. 

So prolific was he, that he earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most prolific poet in the English language. It poured from him like water from a tap!

I set about composing the music, with the streets deserted and everything closed during that eerie, quiet few months. The result was The Thought Expressed, a selection of original settings in hymn and song form of John’s poetry. My wife Mahrey provided the vocals. 

It includes a setting of one of the poems from the aforementioned exercise book, entitled Contemplo. I had in mind something else John had told my father: “I believe that anyone who has a talent however small or great, once he is a Catholic, should use it for the sake of the Kingdom.” 

My hope with this CD was to raise money for Mutemwa (still running to this day). Also, to bring listeners closer to John, and consequently to God.

Moving forward two years, and I started another project. I’ve played many different styles of music since my early teens, but over my 40+ years as a musician, I’ve spent most of the time playing traditional music on guitar, fiddle and mandolin. 

So, in the summer of 2022, I set about recording In the Footsteps of the Vagabond. This album is very different to The Thought Expressed, being a collection of traditional music from Cumbria, Norfolk and Devon, with a distinct Zimbabwean flavour – all significant places in John’s life. 

The album was a family effort, featuring Mahrey again on vocals, our son Louis on drums and percussion and our daughter Rhianna providing the artwork for the CD cover. 

Like The Thought Expressed, 100% of profits from sales of the album will go to Mutemwa to help the leprosy patients. In this way, John’s inspiration continues to help the patients that he so loved, over 40 years after his death.

Both albums are available as CDs from the John Bradburne Memorial Society and as a digital download here.

You can read more about the albums at www.philberthoud.com.

All of John Bradburne's poetry is collected at www.johnbradburnepoems.com.