Preceded by Sir Maurice Hankey Name Edward 1st | Children 4 Preceded by Sir Horace Wilson | |
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Spouse(s) Katharine, Lady Bridges (died in 1986) Succeeded by William Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Sanderstead | ||
Edward Ettingdene Bridges, 1st Baron Bridges, (4 August 1892 – 27 August 1969) was a British civil servant.
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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.
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.
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. 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:
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.
Honours
In the 1939 New Year Honours, Bridges was appointed to the Order of the Bath as a Knight Commander (KCB) and in the 1944 New Year Honours was promoted within the same Order as a Knight Grand Cross (GCB). In the 1946 Birthday Honours, Sir Edward was appointed to the Royal Victorian Order as a Knight Grand Cross (GCVO). Sir Edward was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1952 (FRS). He was then sworn of the Privy Council in the 1953 Coronation Honours. In 1957, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bridges, of Headley in the County of Surrey, and of St Nicholas at Wade in the County of Kent. Lord Bridges was appointed to the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion (KG) in 1965.