Bracher was born in Stockport, Cheshire (now Lancashire), England on 30 November 1904 as the only child of Lauter Sidney Bracher and Edith Marie Bessie Lee. His father was born in the United States, and moved to England in 1894. His parents married in 1903, but divorced in 1910.

After the divorce, Bracher’s father emigrated to France, later dying in a psychiatric hospital aged 70. His mother lived until 1974, reaching the age of 93. Bracher married Marjorie Ethel Irvine in 1935, and they had one daughter, Caroline, in 1941. He was widowed in 1988.

Following the 30 October 2013 death of Ralph Tarrant, Bracher became the oldest living man in the UK. In 2015, he became the first British man to reach his 111th birthday since Harry Patch in 2009.

Bracher died on 13 April 2016 at the age of 111 years, 135 days. At the time, he was the fourth-oldest living person in the UK, as well as the fifth-oldest man ever to die in the country. He was succeeded as the UK’s oldest man by then-110-year-old Frank Simes.