John Bradley

William John Bradley was born in Gallon, near Newtownstewart. He was educated at Gallon PS, CBS Grammar School, Omagh, and St Joseph's College of Education, Belfast. He was awarded the Diploma in Advanced Stuieds in Education and a Master of Arts degree by the University of Ulster, graduating in 1980.

John taught in the Newtownstewart area for 8 years before moving to Derry where he worked in St Anne's and Rosemount Primary Schools, finally serving for 13 years as principal of Rosemount. He retired from teaching in August 2000 and is currently employed in the Education Department, Ulster American Folk Park.

John has been involved in local history for many years. He was a member the Local History Group which was led by staff of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and which met weekly in the Model School, Newtownstewart during the late 1960s.

He was elected chairman of the West Tyrone Historical Society in 2002, in succession to Mr David Haddow. He is also currently chairman of the Federation for Ulster Local Studies.

John's publications include :
"Rosemount, the village and the school" (1991)
"Gallon, the history of three townlands in Co Tyrone" (2000)
He has contributed chapters to"The Parish of Ardstraw East 1785 - 1985" ed. B McBride (1985) , "Townlands in Ulster" by W Crawford and RH Foy (1998), and "The Debateable Land" ed. B Turner (2002), as well as writing articles for various historical periodicals.