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William Clive Bridgeman

William Clive Bridgeman, 1st Viscount Bridgeman (31 December 1864 - 14 August 1935) was a British Conservative politician.

Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Bridgeman entered a career in politics early, becoming assistant private secretary to Lord Knutsford, the Colonial Secretary (1889-1892), and then to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1895-1897). In 1897 he became a member of the London school board, and in 1904 he was elected to the London County Council. In 1906 he was elected as an MP for northern Shropshire, staying in that seat from 1906 until his retirement in 1929.

In 1911, Bridgeman became an opposition whip, and became a government whip in the Asquith coalition government in 1915. With the creation of Lloyd George's coalition in 1916, Bridgeman became Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Labour (1916-1919), and then at the Board of Trade (1919-1920), and then served as secretary of the Mines Department (1920-1922). In these roles, Bridgeman became a devoted opponent of strikes and socialism, although he came to admire more moderate trade unionists.

In October 1922, Bridgeman was one of the leaders of the Conservative revolt against the coalition's leadership, and he became Home Secretary in the new Conservative governments of Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin from 1922 until January 1924. He developed here a reputation for harshness and resolve, which continued in his time as First Lord of the Admiralty from November 1924 to June 1929. Throughout, he was one of Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin's closest allies.

Bridgeman retired from the Commons in 1929, and that same year was created Viscount Bridgeman. In his later years, he served as chairman of various commissions and committees, as well as, briefly, Chairman of the BBC.


|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
The Viscount Chelmsford | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |First Lord of the Admiralty
1924–1929 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Albert Victor Alexander

Last updated: 10-18-2005 12:35:50
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