British politician and peer
William Clive Bridgeman, 1st Viscount Bridgeman
,
PC
,
JP
,
DL
(31 December 1864 ? 14 August 1935) was a British
Conservative
politician and peer. He notably served as
Home Secretary
between 1922 and 1924. He was also an active cricketer.
Background and education
[
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]
Bridgeman was born in London, United Kingdom, the son of Reverend Hon. John Robert Orlando Bridgeman, third son of the
2nd Earl of Bradford
, and Marianne Caroline Clive. He was educated at
Eton
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
.
[1]
While there he was secretary of the
Pitt Club
.
[2]
Cricketing
[
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]
While at Cambridge, he played
first-class cricket
for the
Cambridge University Cricket Club
.
[3]
Below first-class he played at county level for
Shropshire
, appearing 31 times between 1884 and 1903, achieving a
century
in one match with 159 runs, while playing at club level for
Worthen
and for
Blymhill
in Staffordshire. In 1931 he served as President of the
Marylebone Cricket Club
.
[4]
Political career
[
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]
Bridgeman entered a career in politics early, becoming assistant private secretary to
Lord Knutsford
, the
Colonial Secretary
(1889?1892), and then to
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach
, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer
from 1895 to 1897. In 1897 he became a member of the
London School Board
, and in 1904 he was elected to the
London County Council
. In 1906 he was elected as a member of parliament (MP) for
Oswestry
, staying in this seat until his retirement in 1929. In 1909 he was appointed a member of a
Royal Commission
on the selection of Justices of the Peace.
[5]
In 1911, Bridgeman became an opposition whip, and became a government whip in the Asquith coalition government in 1915. From 1915 to 1916, he was
Lord of the Treasury
[6]
and Assistant Director of the
War Trade Department
. With the creation of
Lloyd George's
coalition in 1916, Bridgeman became
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour
until 1919, and then
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade
in 1919 and 1920, and then served as
Secretary for Mines
from 1920 to 1922. In these roles, Bridgeman became a devoted opponent of strikes and socialism, although he came to admire more moderate trade unionists. He was appointed to the
Privy Council
on 13 October 1920.
[7]
In October 1922, Bridgeman was one of the leaders of the Conservative revolt against the coalition's leadership, and he became
Home Secretary
in the new Conservative governments of
Bonar Law
and
Stanley Baldwin
from 1922 until January 1924. He developed here a reputation for harshness and resolve, which continued in his time as
First Lord of the Admiralty
from November 1924
[8]
[9]
to June 1929. Throughout, he was one of Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin's closest allies. Bridgeman retired from the
Commons
in 1929, and on 18 June that year was created
Viscount Bridgeman
, of Leigh in the
County of Shropshire
.
[10]
Later life
[
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]
In his later years, he served as chairman of various commissions and committees, as well as, briefly, Chairman of the
BBC
. He became
Justice of Peace
and
Deputy Lieutenant
of Shropshire, and received an Honorary
Doctor of Law
from the
University of Cambridge
in 1930.
Family
[
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]
Lord Bridgeman married
Caroline Beatrix Parker
, daughter of Hon. Cecil Thomas Parker and Rosamond Esther Harriet Longley, daughter of the Most Rev.
Charles Thomas Longley
,
Archbishop of Canterbury
, in
Eccleston
,
Chester
, on 30 April 1895. They had four children:
Lord Bridgeman died in Leigh Manor, Shropshire, on 14 August 1935, aged 70, and was buried in the churchyard at Hope near
Minsterley
three days later. The Viscountess Bridgeman died in December 1961.
References
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Sources
[
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]
- Williamson, Philip.
The modernisation of conservative politics: the diaries and letters of William Bridgeman 1904-1935
(Historians' Press, 1988).
External links
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