Background
William Clive Bridgeman was born on 31 December 1864, the son of the Rev. Orlando Bridgeman, third son of the second Earl of Bradford.
William Clive Bridgeman was born on 31 December 1864, the son of the Rev. Orlando Bridgeman, third son of the second Earl of Bradford.
He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge.
He became president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1931. He began his political career as Conservative M.P. for the Northern (Oswestry) division of Shropshire between 1906 and 1929. He developed into a substantial political figure, although he was never a politician of the first order.
Bridgeman saw himself as a “Disraelian” Conservative, interested in social reform. He was an active backbencher who became a junior opposition whip between 1911 and 1915, becoming a government whip in the wartime coalition of Herbert Henry Asquith. Between June and December 1916, he was a chief whip, as parliamentary secretary to the Treasury. He gained this post toward the end of Asquith’s premiership, and lost it when David Lloyd George became prime minister. However, within a few weeks he had been appointed parliamentary secretary to the newly created Ministry of Labour, a post he held until January 1919, when he became parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade. About eighteen months later, in August 1920, he became parliamentary secretary for the mines, the government having taken over control of the mines in 1917. He held this post until 1922, although the government had handed the coal mines back to the owners on 1 April 1921. When Andrew Bonar Law formed his new Conservative government, in October 1922, Bridgeman was appointed home secre¬tary. He continued in this post under Stanley Baldwin until the first Labour government was formed, in January 1924.
Out of office during the first Labour government, he returned as First Lord of the Admiralty between 1924 and 1929, when he was recognized to be a true patriot. He retired from the House of Commons after Labour’s victory in May and June 1929, having been awarded the title of viscount and thus promoted to the , House of Lords. He died on 14 August 1935.
He was an able cricketer.
He married Caroline Parker in 1895.