Royce Bradford was probably born in Randwick NSW. He studied Life Painting (advanced composition, still life, mural decoration) and Monochrome Painting (advanced and costume life painting) with the NSW Technical Education Branch, graduating with C grades at the end of 1933 (Daily Telegraph, 29/1/1923).

In the late 1930s, he worked as a commercial artist in Randwick, experimenting with caricatures in unusual materials. His small clay heads of Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler featured in The World's News (18 November 1939—with the attribution corrected in December). He is reported to have been a magazine illustrator.

Bradford was one of the earliest Australian comic writers and artists as the market took off during the second world war, creating The Bronze Cat for NSW Bookstall (~1943) and one-page humorous features for OPC (~1946-1947). As the market expanded and declined over the next decade, he worked for a range of publishers, including Meteor (~1947), KG Murray (~1947), Wollumbin (~1950-1951), Action Comics (~1955-1960), Cleveland/Apache (~1955-1960) and Horwitz (~1958-1961).

In 1944, Bradford co-founded B.B.F. Art Advertising & Publishing Company. The company's name is based on the founders' initials—Royce Bradford, Dudley Bray and Eric Francis. Bradford authored and/or illustrated a number of books before resigning in July 1945.

During the 1950s, Bradford also worked in art production for Arthur Gorfain's Press Features Service, providing illustrations and artistic talent for various publications. In the 1960s, he provided artwork for the educational comic series, Pictorial Social Studies (Sydney Australian Visual Education).

Around 1954, he founded Bradford Displays, a company formally registered November 1954. This published some comics (Robin Hood Comics and Super Western Comics).

Bradford also did oil paintings, some of which have sold at auction since his death.