Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Bill Harrop and Sally Bradley, who died in the Sri Lanka bombings.
Bill Harrop and Sally Bradley, who died in the Sri Lanka bombings. Photograph: Sally Harrop Facebook
Bill Harrop and Sally Bradley, who died in the Sri Lanka bombings. Photograph: Sally Harrop Facebook

Tributes to Manchester doctor and former firefighter killed in Sri Lanka

This article is more than 4 years old

Dr Sally Bradley and Bill Harrop were on holiday from their home in Australia

Friends, family and former colleagues have paid tribute to a “remarkable and wondrous” clinician and her husband, a decorated former firefighter, who were among eight Britons killed in the Easter bomb attacks in Sri Lanka.

Dr Sally Bradley, a former director of public health in Manchester, and Bill Harrop were on holiday in the country when they were killed in the blast that struck the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

Bradley and Harrop, both 56, were described as soulmates who had moved to Australia shortly after Harrop retired in 2012. Friends and family said they were planning to return to the UK, where they had bought a retirement home in the Cotswolds.

The pair had both been honoured in their professional lives. Harrop, 56, was commended for his role in the aftermath of the 1996 IRA attack on Manchester, during his 30-year career with Greater Manchester fire and rescue service.

Dave Keelan, the service’s assistant county fire officer, described Harrop as a “much-loved and respected colleague and friend. He will be greatly missed.”

Bradley rose to become the director of public health in Manchester and then medical director of Pennine Care NHS foundation trust, having started her medical career as a GP in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Dr Anton Sinniah, a divisional clinical director for medicine and consultant at North Manchester general hospital, added: “Sally was a lovely, kind individual, extremely approachable and gave so much to the NHS in Manchester during her career.

“It was a pleasure and privilege to work with her. She will be missed by so many. On behalf of colleagues here at the trust, our thoughts are with their family, close friends and colleagues.”

A friend and former colleague said Bradley had risen from a “relatively poor background” in Birmingham to studying medicine at the University of Manchester before “leading the fight for better health for ordinary people”.

“She has more professional achievements than I can remember,” she added.

Jim Potter and Raj Jain, the chairman and chief executive of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, which runs Salford Royal and Pennine Acute NHS trusts, said: “We are truly shocked and deeply saddened by the awful news of the death of Dr Sally Bradley and her husband Bill Harrop in the Sri Lanka bombings over the weekend.

“Sally was a well-respected clinician, GP and former director of public health in Manchester,” they said, adding that she made a “significant personal and professional contribution to patient safety and public health”.

“We would like to express our sincere condolences to their family for their loss,” they said.

Kathleen Smith, the executive director at Rockingham Peel Group in Perth, where Bradley worked, told Australia’s 6PR radio: “She absolutely loved living in Australia. She felt very at home here. They were soulmates, they just lived for each other.

“He had two boys, which Sally took on as her stepsons. She talked about them as if they were her own.”

She was sister to the Labour peer Keith Bradley, a former MP for Manchester Withington, who paid tribute to her on Monday, describing her as a “remarkable and wondrous woman”.

Lord Bradley said his sister was “not only an inspiration to me, but someone that was respected and loved across Greater Manchester” and was “truly a bright light in many people’s lives”.

He added: “The light may have been cruelly distinguished for no reason or justification, but she will always live in our hearts and the memories she provided will be forever cherished. I, and my family, will miss her more than words can articulate.”

The foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday described the attacks in which eight British nationals died as “a primitive and vile attempt to sow divisions between people of different faiths.”

More on this story

More on this story

  • Sri Lanka ex-president Sirisena ordered to compensate 2019 Easter bombing victims

  • Trial begins of 25 men over Sri Lanka Easter bombings in 2019

  • US charges three Sri Lankans over role in 2019 Isis Easter attacks

  • Sri Lanka bombings: spy chief lambasted in damning report

  • Sri Lanka bombings: police and defence chiefs held on negligence charge

  • Asos tycoon who lost children in Sri Lanka attacks thanks public

  • Sri Lanka imposes curfew after mobs target mosques

  • Sri Lankan churches hold first Sunday masses since attacks

  • Sri Lanka: churches shut as worshippers mourn one week after bombings

Most viewed

Most viewed