Title Earl of Bradford Spouse(s) Margaret Cecilia Bruce | Name Orlando 5th | |
Born 6 October 1873 ( 1873-10-06 ) Died 21 March 1957(1957-03-21) (aged 83) Tenure 2 January 1915 – 21 March 1957 Other titles 5th Viscount Newport
6th Baron Bradford
10th Baronet Bridgeman of Great Lever Successor Gerald Bridgeman, 6th Earl of Bradford | ||
Lieutenant-Colonel Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford DL, JP (6 October 1873 – 21 March 1957), styled Viscount Newport from 1898 to 1915, was a British peer, Conservative politician and soldier. He was a major landowner, owning up to 20,000 acres (81 km2).
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Background
Bridgeman was the oldest son of George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford and his wife Lady Ida Frances Annabella Lumley, second daughter of Richard Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough. Bridgeman was educated at Harrow School and went then to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1896 and with a Master of Arts in 1903. At Cambridge, he was secretary of the Pitt Club. He succeeded his father as earl in 1915.
Career
Bridgeman served in the British Army where he joined the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment), and was appointed a captain on 29 April 1899. He fought in the Second Boer War in 1899 and the following year, and again in 1902, returning from Cape Town to the United Kingdom with most of his regiment in May 1902. He again fought in the First World War from 1915 as a lieutenant-colonel. Bridgeman was appointed Honorary Colonel of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry in 1939.
Bridgeman was assistant private secretary to Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in his posts as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 1898 and 1900 and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a few weeks during the summer of 1902. Salisbury resigned on 11 July 1902, and Lord Newport subsequently was private secretary to Salisbury's successor Arthur Balfour from July 1902 until 1905. Having joined the House of Lords on his father's death, Bridgeman became Government Whip in 1919, a post he held until 1924. He was Justice of the Peace for Shropshire and represented the latter county as well as Warwickshire as Deputy Lieutenant, too.
Family
On 21 July 1904, he married The Hon. Margaret Cecilia Bruce (28 October 1882 – 16 April 1949), daughter of Henry Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare. They had five children: