Edward Bridges, 1st Baron Bridges

Edward Ettingdene Bridges, 1st Baron Bridges, KG, GCB, GCVO, MC, PC, FRS^[1] (4 August 1892 – 27 August 1969) was a British civil servant.

Early life

Bridges was born on 4 August 1892 in Yattendon in Berkshire. He was the son of Robert Bridges, later Poet Laureate, and Mary Monica Waterhouse, daughter of the architect Alfred Waterhouse. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Career

Military service

Bridges then fought in the First World War with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He achieved the rank of captain and was awarded the Military Cross.

Public service

He later joined the Civil Service and in 1938 he was appointed Cabinet Secretary, succeeding Sir Maurice Hankey. Bridges remained in this post until 1946, when he was made Permanent Secretary to the Treasury and Head of the Home Civil Service, a position he held until 1956. He was invested a Privy Counsellor in 1953 and in 1957 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bridges, of Headley in the County of Surrey and of Saint Nicholas at Wade in the County of Kent. In 1965 he was given the additional honour of being made a Knight of the Garter.

After his retirement Lord Bridges notably served as Chancellor of the University of Reading. Moreover, he was given honorary degrees from several universities and appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society.^[1] He also published The State and the Arts, Romanes Lecture for 1958, Oxford, and The Treasury (Oxford University Press, 1964).

Personal life

Bridges married Katharine Dianthe Farrer, daughter of Thomas Cecil Farrer, 2nd Baron Farrer, on 6 June 1922. They had four children:

• Hon. Shirley Frances Bridges (b. 1924)
• Thomas Edward Bridges, 2nd Baron Bridges (b. 1927) (a diplomat)
• Hon. Robert Bridges (b. 1930) (an architect)
• Hon. Margaret Evelyn Bridges (1932-2014^[2]) (a medieval historian)

Lord Bridges died at Winterfold Heath, Surrey, on 27 August 1969, aged 77. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Thomas, a prominent diplomat who notably served as British Ambassador to Italy from 1983 to 1987.

References

External links

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Heads of the Home Civil Service Sir Warren Fisher Sir Horace Wilson Sir Edward Bridges Sir William Armstrong Sir Douglas Allen Sir Robert Armstrong* Sir Robin Butler* Sir Richard Wilson* Sir Andrew Turnbull* Sir Gus O'Donnell* Sir Bob Kerslake Sir Jeremy Heywood* *Also Cabinet Secretary

Secretaries of the Cabinet Colonel Maurice Hankey Sir Edward Bridges Sir Norman Brook General Sir Hastings Ismay Sir Burke Trend Sir John Hunt Sir Robert Armstrong Sir Robin Butler Sir Richard Wilson Sir Andrew Turnbull Sir Gus O'Donnell Sir Jeremy Heywood