William Bridgeman, 1st Viscount Bridgeman

William Clive Bridgeman, 1st Viscount Bridgeman PC DL JP (born December 31, 1864 in London , † August 14, 1935 in Leigh Manor, Shropshire ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party , who between 1906 and 1929 the constituency of Oswestry as a member of House of Commons and Minister of Mines between 1920 and 1922, Minister of the Interior from 1922 to 1924 and First Lord of the Admiralty between 1924 and 1929 . In 1929 he was ennobled as Viscount Bridgeman and was a member of the House of Lords until his death . In 1935 he was Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors for a short time until his death .

Life

Studies, unsuccessful candidacies and MPs

Bridgeman, son of the clergyman John Robert Orlando Bridgeman and his wife Marianne Caroline Clive, attended Eton College between 1877 and 1884 and then studied at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge from 1884 to 1888 , which he obtained with a Master of Arts (MA ) completed. He then served as private secretary to Colonial Minister Henry Holland, 1st Baron Knutsford, between 1889 and 1892 .

In 1892 Bridgeman applied for the first time unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Commons in the constituency of North Worcestershire . In 1895 he failed again in the constituency of Mid-Derbyshire in his candidacy for a seat in the House of Commons. He was then the private secretary of Chancellor of the Exchequer Michael Hicks Beach between 1895 and 1902 .

After he ran again unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Commons in the constituency of Oswestry in 1904 , Bridgeman was elected as a candidate of the Liberal Unionists on January 12, 1906 in the constituency of Oswestry for the first time to the House of Commons and belonged to it for more than 23 years until May 30, 1929.

Minister of Mining, Secretary of the Interior and First Lord of the Admiralty

While he was a member of Parliament, Bridgeman served briefly in 1911 as Parliamentary Secretary ( Whip ) of the Liberal Unionist faction in the House of Commons. He was later from 1915 to 1916 both Lord Treasurer ( Lord of the Treasury ) and Deputy Director in the Ministry of War Trade (War Trade Department) .

He then acted between 1916 and 1919 as the private parliamentary secretary of the then Labor Ministers in the government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George , John Hodge and then George Henry Roberts . He was then from 1919 to 1920 Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Commerce (President of the Board of Trade) , Auckland Geddes .

Bridgeman, who was temporarily also Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace , became Secretary for Mines on August 22, 1920 in the Lloyd George cabinet and held this ministerial office until he was replaced by George Lane-Fox on November 6, 1922. At the same time he was appointed member of the Privy Council on October 13, 1920 .

On October 25, 1922, Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law appointed him to succeed Edward Shortt as Home Secretary . He also held this ministerial office in the government of Andrew Bonar Law's successor Stanley Baldwin until January 23, 1924.

After the election victory of the Conservative Party in the lower house elections on 23 October 1924 and re-inauguration of Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister on November 6, 1924 Bridgeman became First Lord of the Admiralty ( First Lord of the Admiralty ) and held that post until the end of Baldwin Term expires on June 4, 1929.

Member of the House of Lords and Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors

Coat of arms of the Viscount Bridgeman

After leaving the government and the House of Commons, Bridgeman was raised to a hereditary peer by a letters patent dated June 18, 1929 as Viscount Bridgeman , of Leigh in the County of Shropshire, and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death.

Bridgeman, who also became a Fellow of Eton College in 1929 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Cambridge in 1930 , took over from John Henry Whitley as Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors in 1935, serving as Chairman for some time until his death of the Broadcasting Council of the British Broadcasting Corporation .

After his death he was buried in Hope Minsterley, Shropshire. His marriage to Caroline Beatrix Parker on April 30, 1895 resulted in three sons and a daughter who died within a day. His eldest son Robert Clive Bridgeman inherited his title of nobility. The second eldest son, Geoffrey John Orlando Bridgeman, served as brigadier general in the Royal Army Medical Corps , while his youngest son, Maurice Richard Bridgeman, served as BP's chief executive officer between 1960 and 1969 .

Web links

• William Bridgeman, 1st Viscount Bridgeman at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• William Clive Bridgeman, 1st Viscount Bridgeman on thepeerage.com , accessed August 19, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Viscount Bridgeman 1929-1935	Robert Bridgeman
Frederic Thesiger	First Lord of the Admiralty 1924–1929	AV Alexander