Francis Bridgeman (British Army officer)
The Honourable Francis Charles Bridgeman JP | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 July 1846 |
| Died | 14 September 1917 (aged 71) |
| Service | British Army |
| Rank | Brigadier-General |
| Unit | Scots Fusilier Guards |
| Battles / wars | |
| Relations | Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford (father) Reginald Bridgeman (son) Orlando Bridgeman (son) |
| Other work | Member of Parliament Justice of the Peace |
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.
Background and education
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]Bridgeman married, firstly, Gertude Cecilia Hanbury, daughter of George Hanbury, on 26 July 1883; they had five children.[15] She died in 1911, and after two years as a widower, Bridgeman married, secondly, Agnes Florence Briscoe, 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]
Memorials
[edit]Bridgeman is commemorated by a stained glass window by Christopher Whall at St Andrew's Church, Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire, completed in 1918.[18]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c de Massue (1994), p. 100.
- ^ a b Fox-Davies (1895), p. 123.
- ^ Welch (1894), p. 263.
- ^ "No. 2299". The London Gazette. 11 July 1865. p. 3486.
- ^ "No. 23511". The London Gazette. 29 June 1869. p. 3692.
- ^ a b Debrett (1886), p. 18.
- ^ "No. 24500". The London Gazette. 4 September 1877. p. 5098.
- ^ "No. 25250". The London Gazette. 13 July 1883. p. 3531.
- ^ Burke (1914), p. 286.
- ^ Who Was Who, 1916-1928. A & C Black. 1947. pp. 124–125.
- ^ "No. 25680". The London Gazette. 8 March 1887. p. 1231.
- ^ "No. 26320". The London Gazette. 26 August 1892. p. 4894.
- ^ "No. 26500". The London Gazette. 3 April 1894. p. 1883.
- ^ "No. 29766". The London Gazette. 26 September 1916. p. 9457.
- ^ a b c Dod (1915), p. 101.
- ^ Kelly's Handbook of the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1916. p. 233.
- ^ "Death of Brigadier-General the Hon. F.C. Bridgeman". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 21 September 1917. p. 2.
- ^ William Morris Gallery Catalogue for: "Christopher Whall 1849-1924:Arts & Crafts Stained Glass Worker-Exhibition 17th November 1979-3rd February 1980". An exhibition at which Whall's designs for stained glass windows were shown
References
[edit]- 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; Robert Phipps Dod (1915). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland 1915. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Ltd.
- (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.
