Education
After school, where his artistic talent had been recognised, Bridge studied at the Royal Academy School of Art, where he was influenced by Post-Impressionism.
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Tony Bridge
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He was Dean of Guildford for 18 years, from 1968 to 1986. He was widely recognised for his brilliant and unconventional preaching. Bridge"s father was Royal Navy Commander Cyprian Dunscomb Charles Bridge.
Living on a small private income, he became an artist in the 1930s.
Foreign a period, he shared a studio with Dylan Thomas and spent the summers from 1934 to 1937 in Sark, Channel Islands, in the colony of artists which included Mervyn Peake and Peter Scott. Bridge enlisted as a private in the British Army on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.
He was commissioned in the Buffs in 1940, and served in Egypt and North Africa, interpreting aerial photographs. He joined the staff at the School of Military Intelligence at Matlock in Derbyshire in 1943.
He was demobilised in 1945 in the rank of major.
He described his conversion in his book, One Manitoba"s Advent, published in 1985. Bridge decided to seek ordination and, in an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, said that he did not really want to become a priest but could see little alternative. He moved to Romney Marsh to become curate of Hythe in Kent.
He was appointed as vicar of Christ Church at Lancaster Gate in Paddington in 1958.
Prostitution was prevalent in his parish, but it also contained many young professionals living in bedsits. He preached on intellectual themes, such as the theological purpose of Picasso and Iris Murdoch, and brought in large congregations.
Despite his modern approach to preaching, he deplored the retreat of prayer and mystery in the Church, and the loss of its musical and liturgical heritage. Bridge was appointed as Dean of Guildford Cathedral in 1968, only seven years after the new cathedral was consecreated, serving in that post for 18 years until 1986.
He took little pleasure in his administrative duties, but continued to enjoy preaching.
He wrote several books, including Theodora: Portrait in a Byzantine Landscape (1978), The Crusades (1980), Suleiman the Magnificent (1983) and Richard the Lionheart (1989). Upon his retirement in 1986, and became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
Membership
He was a member of the advisory council of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1976 to 1979, and also lectured on Greek and Turkish art on cruises in the Mediterranean.
