Francis Charles Bridgeman

Brigadier-General Francis Charles Bridgeman JP (4 July 1846 – 14 September 1917),[1] styled The Honourable from 1865, was a British Army officer and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1895.

The Honourable Francis Charles Bridgeman JP
Born	4 July 1846
Died	14 September 1917 (aged 71)
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Brigadier-General
Unit	Scots Fusilier Guards
Battles/wars	Mahdist War World War I
Relations	Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford (father) Reginald Bridgeman (son) Orlando Bridgeman (son)
Other work	Member of Parliament Justice of the Peace

Background and education

Bridgeman was the second son of Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford.[2] His mother was Hon. Selina Louisa Forester, the daughter of Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester.[2] Bridgeman was educated in Harrow School and joined afterwards the British Army.[3]

Career

In 1865, he purchased a commission into the Scots Fusilier Guards as an ensign and lieutenant[4] and four years later became a lieutenant and captain.[5] Bridgeman was nominated an aide-de-camp to Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1875, a position he held until the following year.[6] He was promoted to captain and lieutenant-colonel in 1877.[7] A year later, Bridgeman accompanied a special mission sent to Spain and attended the marriage of King Alfonso XII, where he was invested a knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.[6] In 1883 Bridgeman was advanced to major.[8]

He took part in the Suakin Expedition in 1885 and upon his return he entered the British House of Commons, having been elected for Bolton; he represented the constituency for a decade until 1895.[9] At three previous elections he had unsuccessfully contested Stafford in 1874, Tamworth in 1878, and Bolton itself in 1880.[10]

Bridgeman obtained a colonelship in 1887[11] and received command of the Staffordshire Brigade in 1892.[12] He retired from the army 27 March 1894.[13] During the First World War he became commandant of the central group of the London Volunteer Regiment of the Volunteer Training Corps in 1916.[14] Bridgeman was a Justice of the Peace for the counties of Staffordshire and Shropshire.[15]

Family

Bridgeman married firstly, Gertude Cecilia, daughter of George Hanbury, on 26 July 1883; they had five children.[15] Gertrude died in 1911 and after two years as a widower Bridgeman remarried Agnes Florence, daughter of Richard Holt Briscoe on 27 November 1913.[15]

In later life he lived at The Priory, Beech Hill, near Reading, Berkshire.[16] He died suddenly, while riding his horse near Reading[17] in 1917, aged seventy-one, and was survived by his second wife until 1946.[1] His oldest son was the diplomat Reginald Bridgeman.[1]

Notes

1. de Massue (1994), p. 100
2. Fox-Davies (1895), p. 123
3. Welch (1894), p. 263
4. "No. 2299". The London Gazette. 11 July 1865. p. 3486.
5. "No. 23511". The London Gazette. 29 June 1869. p. 3692.
6. Debrett (1886), p. 18
7. "No. 24500". The London Gazette. 4 September 1877. p. 5098.
8. "No. 25250". The London Gazette. 13 July 1883. p. 3531.
9. Burke (1914), p. 286
10. Who Was Who, 1916-1928. A & C Black. 1947. pp. 124–125.
11. "No. 25680". The London Gazette. 8 March 1887. p. 1231.
12. "No. 26320". The London Gazette. 26 August 1892. p. 4894.
13. "No. 26500". The London Gazette. 3 April 1894. p. 1883.
14. "No. 29766". The London Gazette. 26 September 1916. p. 9457.
15. Dod (1915), p. 101
16. Kelly's Handbook of the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1916. p. 233.
17. "Death of Brigadier-General the Hon. F.C. Bridgeman". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 21 September 1917. p. 2.

References

• Debrett, John (1886). Robert Henry Mair (ed.). Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench. London: Dean & Son Ltd.
• Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1895). Armorial Families. Edinburgh: Grange Publishing Works.
• Charles Roger Dod and Robert Phipps Dod (1915). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland 1915. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Ltd.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
• (Marquis of Ruvigny & Raineval) de Massue, Melville Henry (1994). Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Clarence Volume. London: Genealogical Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8063-1432-X.
• Welch, Reginald Courtenay (1894). The Harrow School Register, 1801–1893. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
• Burke, John (1914). Ashworth P. Burke (ed.). Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerag, Baronetage and Knightage 1914. London: Harrison and Sons Ltd.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Francis Bridgeman
• Portraits of Francis Bridgeman at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• British Pathé newsreel of the Pharmacists' VTC being inspected by Brigadier General Bridgeman in a London park in 1916