Benjamin C. Bradlee - Early Life and Ancestry

Early Life and Ancestry

A member of the Boston Brahmin Crowninshield family, Bradlee was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 26, 1921. His father was Frederick Josiah Bradlee Jr. (1892–1970), a direct descendant of John Bradley – the first of the Bradleys to come to America – who in 1630 helped build what is now Dorchester, Massachusetts. His mother, Josephine de Gersdorff (1896–1975), was awarded the Legion of Honor for helping keep children safe from Nazi Germany and France during World War II. Bradlee's maternal grandfather, Carl August de Gersdorff (1865–1944), the son of a German immigrant, was a wealthy New York lawyer. Bradlee's maternal grandmother was Helen Suzette Crowninshield (1868–1941), daughter of artist Frederic Crowninshield (1845–1918), another member of the Crowninshield family. His great-great-uncle was American lawyer and Ambassador Joseph Hodges Choate; and his great-uncle (and cousin second removed) was Francis "Frank" Welch Crowninshield, the creator and editor of Vanity Fair, and a roommate of Conde Nast.

Josephine de Gersdorff, Bradlee's mother, was a direct descendant of Heinrich XXIX, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf, who was a direct descendant of King John II of France and Bonne of Bohemia. Bradlee's maternal great grandfather was Dr. Ernst Bruno von Gersdorffk, Josephine's grandfather, who was a third cousin of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom through Heinrich XXIX.

Bradlee attended Dexter School before finishing at St. Mark's School. Thereafter he attended Harvard College. He received his naval commission two hours after graduating in 1942, joined the Office of Naval Intelligence and worked as a communications officer in the Pacific during World War II. His duties included handling classified and coded cables. The main ship on which Bradlee served was a destroyer, the USS Philip. He fought off the shore of Guam, arriving at Guadalcanal with the Second Fleet. His main battles were Vella Lavella, Saipan, Tinian, and Bougainville. He also fought in the biggest naval battle ever fought, the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. He made every landing in the Solomon Islands campaign and Philippines campaign.

When Bradlee married for the first time, it was to Jean Saltonstall. They had one son, Ben Bradlee Jr., who was raised in Cambridge by his mother and her second husband, Bill Haussermann. Ben Bradlee Jr. is a former deputy managing editor of The Boston Globe.