Francis Charles Bridgeman Bridgeman

Admiral Sir Francis C. B. Bridgeman, portrayed in 1925.
Portrait: Ernest Moore.

Admiral SIR Francis Charles Bridgeman Bridgeman (born Francis Charles Bridgeman Bridgeman-Simpson, changing his name on 4 November 1896), G.C.B., G.C.V.O., J.P., Royal Navy (7 December, 1848 – 17 February, 1929) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He twice commanded the British Home Fleet in the run-up to the First World War, and served as Second Sea Lord, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, and First Sea Lord. In 1912 he was dismissed in acrimonious circumstances by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and went into retirement a year later.

Early Life & Career

Bridgeman-Simpson was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 8 April, 1873.

He was appointed Gunnery Lieutenant of the corvette Encounter on the China Station on 9 January, 1879. She paid off on 15 June, 1883, when he was given fifty-nine days' full pay leave. On 3 October he was appointed to Excellent, additional, to requalify in gunnery. Thus requalified, on 5 January, 1884, he was appointed to the barbette ship Temeraire in the Mediterranean as First Lieutenant and Gunnery Officer. Captain Henry F. Nicholson strongly recommended him for promotion.

Commander

Bridgeman-Simpson was promoted to the rank of Commander on 30 June, 1884. At the end of the year he went through the Lieutenants' short course of Torpedo on half pay, and on 1 January, 1885, commissioned as Commander (Second-in-Command) the battleship Triumph for service as flag ship on the Pacific Station. The Commander-in-Chief was Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, Bart.

Sub-Lieutenant (later Admiral of the Fleet Sir) Henry F. Oliver, who joined Triumph in 1886, later recorded problems with Bridgeman-Simpson when he ordered the guns sponged out properly:

The Comdr. was very proud of his white Q.D. [quarter deck] with some patent white composition in the seams instead of pitch and I expected trouble when we fired. Soon we had target practice and the starbd Q.D. gun fired 8 rounds quickly without a hitch or jam and black water ran out of the breech and the sacred Q.D. was defiled. Along came a furious Comdr. and said he would have me put under arrest[,] then came the C-in-C's big voice[,] "You let the boy alone[,] Comdr.[,] he is the only officer who has made these guns work properly".

Towards the end of the commission Bridgeman-Simpson developed an "oblique inguinal hernia" and went sick from March to May, 1888.

On 19 May, 1888, he was appointed Commander of Excellent. On 18 July, 1889, he was lent to the battleship Howe for the annual manœuvres before returning to Excellent. On 6 November he married Emily Charlotte (1842–1922), daughter of Thomas and Mary Shiffner. Emily was six years older than Bridgeman-Simpson, and had inherited Copgrove, a mansion near Harrogate.

Bridgeman-Simpson was promoted to the rank of Captain on 1 January, 1890.

Captain

Bridgeman-Simpson was superseded in Excellent on 3 January, and on 22 May was appointed Captain of Camperdown as Flag Captain to Culme-Seymour, now Vice-Admiral and Senior Officer in Command of the Channel Squadron. Camperdown paid off on 30 May, 1892, and Culme-Seymour paid Bridgeman fulsome tribute, writing: "V.G., zealous and has a thorough knowledge of his profession. Has carried out difficult duties of Flag Captain to my satisfaction."

On 11 July, 1893, he was appointed in command of Iphigenia for the annual manœuvres, paying her off on 19 August. On 17 October he commissioned the new battleship Ramillies as Flag Captain to Culme-Seymour, now an Admiral and serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean in succession to the late Sir George Tryon.

Bridgeman-Simpson was superseded on 17 January, 1895, at his own request on account of ill health, and then went on half-pay. It was noted on 4 November, 1896, that he "abandons" the name of Simpson in his surname, becoming Francis Charles Bridgeman Bridgeman. On 17 December he took command of the first class protected cruiser Blenheim in the Channel Squadron. He once again became Culme-Seymour's Flag Captain on 10 August, 1897, upon the latter becoming Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

He was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King, dated 24 May, 1901, vice Parr. He took command of the new armoured cruiser Drake on 13 January, 1903. He was appointed a Member of the Fourth Class of the Royal Victorian Order (M.V.O.) on 5 May.

Flag Rank

He was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral dated 12 August, 1903, vice Aldrich. On 25 June, 1904 he hoisted his flag as Second-in-Command in the Channel Fleet in succession to Rear-Admiral the Honourable Hedworth Lambton.

On 6 March, 1906, he was appointed Rear-Admiral Second-in-Command in the Mediterranean Fleet, again under Beresford. Upon departing as Commander-in-Chief in January, 1907, Beresford wrote of Bridgeman, "A delightful personality & most loyal & painstaking second. Knows the Service thoroughly & will make a brilliant C in C. Perfect knowledge of tactics." At the same time Bridgeman was granted the Acting Rank of Vice-Admiral.

On 30 October, 1906, Bridgeman's appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet was announced.

He was confirmed in the rank of Vice-Admiral dated 16 February, 1907.

Home Fleet

At the time of his appointment, Bridgeman was still placed seventh on the list of Rear-Admirals.

Shortly before becoming Commander-in-Chief, Bridgeman wrote to Sturdee:

Preparedness for battle is what we must work for, and so long as I am taken fully and freely into the counsels of the senior C.-in-C., I shall help him to the best of my ability … expecting him to receive with sympathy and patience whatever I may … propose. There are plenty of rocks to get stranded on in this scheme, and careful pilotage will be the surest road to success. I don't mind saying that Lord Charles [Beresford] is fortunate in having you to help him.

He hoisted his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet in the battleship Majestic, Captain Robert G. Fraser, at 9 a.m. on 5 March, 1907, at Sheerness. He transferred his flag to Dreadnought on her return from Trinidad on 28 March at Portsmouth.

On 3 August he was knighted and promoted Knight Commander in the Royal Victorian Order (K.C.V.O.), on the occasion of the King's visit to the Home Fleet.

On the occasion of the King's birthday he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Second Class, or Knight Commander, of the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (K.C.B.) on 26 June, 1908.

Bridgeman struck his flag as Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, on 24 March, 1909, and on 25 March became Second Sea Lord on the Board of Admiralty. On 12 April he was confirmed in the rank of Admiral.

On 25 March, 1911, he hoisted his flag once more as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet. One of his commanding officers, Captain (later Admiral Sir) Walter H. Cowan, of the light cruiser Gloucester, wrote forty years later of him:

The C in C of the Fleet into which I came, was Sir Francis Bridgeman, and he was a delight to serve under and to dine with. Up and down his dinner table were 4 big silver statuettes of Hunt servants and hounds, every detail correct of clothes and saddlery of about 100 years back, then on the bulkheads of the dining cabin were Leech's coloured prints of hunting the FOX.
He was the ideal of a Yorkshire all-round Sportsman and a remarkably handsome man. A member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and his yacht in commission each season at Cowes.

First Sea Lord

Dr. John S. Sanders, Arthur Balfour's former Private Secretary and a friend of Bridgeman's, wrote to the former:

I asked Bridgeman how he came to leave command of the Home Fleet. He said that Winston had sent for him, never mentioning what he wanted him for, and to his great surprise he was pressed to accept the post of First Sea Lord, although he had been Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet less than a year. He did his best to decline, but Winston was insistent. Winston told him that he was satisfied he should never be able to work with Wilson, and that he had satisfied himself that he could work with him (Bridgeman). In the result much against the grain Bridgeman had to consent.

Reason for dissatisfaction with Bridgeman's tenure as First Sea Lord may perhaps be found in Walter Cowan's recollection of him:

When afterwards he was 1st Sea Lord at the Admiralty, whatever season of year it was, his Naval Assistant, Captain (Jumbo) Napier, I think it was, [it was actually Captain Charles Bartolomé] was often in despair how to get hold of him. All the winter he would be hunting up in Yorkshire, then in the Spring with the New Forest Stag Hounds and fishing somewhere after that, then Cowes and his yacht until the shooting season, and yet with it all, nothing was amiss with his Admiralty administration.

He was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Military Division of the First Class, or Knight Grand Cross, of the Order of the Bath (G.C.B.) on 10 December.

Retirement

In accordance with the provisions of the Order in Council of 22 February, 1870, Bridgeman was placed on the Retired List on 7 December, 1913. In 1914 he was one of the numerous signatories of the British Covenant against Home Rule in Ulster.

He was installed as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in a ceremonial investiture at Westminster Abbey, the first since 1913, on 18 May, 1920.

Bridgeman was appointed Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom when Sir Michael Culme-Seymour resigned, dated 2 February, 1920. Upon the death of Lord Fisher in July, 1920, Bridgeman served as one of the honorary pallbearers along with former First Sea Lords Jellicoe and Jackson, and five other admirals. The following year he served as an honorary pallbearer at the funerals of Lord Charles Beresford and the Marquess of Milford Haven (latterly Prince Louis of Battenberg). On 25 November Lady Bridgeman died at the age of eighty. Her funeral took place on 29 November at St. Michael and All Angels Church, Copgrove.

Bridgeman died at Nassau, in the Bahamas, on 17 February, 1929. His funeral took place at Copgrove on 4 March.

Allegedly Bridgeman regarded Milford Haven as such an instrumental figure in his removal as First Sea Lord that he blocked the election of his son Lord Louis Mountbatten to the Royal Yacht Squadron.

Assessment

Upon the announcement of Bridgeman's death Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly wrote to The Times newspaper:

Having served for many years under Sir Francis Bridgeman in the Home Fleet, I should like to say a few words in honour of a man who was a perfect English gentleman, as well as being an excellent officer. He was always tactful and courteous to all, no matter what their rank or station. Though a strict disciplinarian, he was very helpful in time of difficulty, and ever ready to hear one's reasons for mistakes made, as long as the same mistake was not made the second time. The one thing he abhorred was a want of straightness; once he found a man was not always straight, such a person no long existed for him. he did not suffer fools gladly, but in dealing with with them his inborn his inborn courtesy never failed him.

Arthur Marder, writing in 1961, wrote of Bridgeman:

Although not a particularly forceful person, and more a follower than a leader, Bridgeman did possess sound judgment and he might have made a moderately successful First Sea Lord, had he served under anybody but Churchill. The two simply did not get along, the root trouble being Bridgeman's resentment against the First Lord's interference in everything.

Marder was hardly in a position to judge who would be a "successful" First Sea Lord, let alone a "moderately successful" one. It is difficult to deny however that Bridgeman was put in a bad position. Having been appointed by a man who made a career of sidelining people, and with Battenberg in the wings as a First Sea Lord-in-waiting, Bridgeman, in this writer's opinion, never had a chance. Notwithstanding, his repeated absences from the Admiralty did him no favours when he was eventually compelled to resign. — SIMON HARLEY, Co-editor.

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• "Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman" (Obituaries). The Times. Tuesday, 19 February, 1929. Issue 45131, col A, p. 19.
• "Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman" (Obituaries). The Times. Friday, 22 February, 1929. Issue 45134, col E, p. 9.
• Bennett, Geoffrey (1968). Charlie B: A Biography of Admiral Lord Beresford of Metemmeh and Curraghmore [&c.]. London: Peter Dawnay Ltd.
• Lambert, Nicholas A. (1995). Murfett, Malcolm H.. ed. The First Sea Lords: From Fisher to Mountbatten. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275942317.
• Ross, Stewart (1998). Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman: The Life and Times of an Officer and a Gentleman. Cambridge: Baily's. ISBN 0952362880.

Service Records

• The National Archives. ADM 196/86.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/39.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/17.

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Naval Appointments
Preceded by The Hon. Hedworth Lambton	Second-in-Command, Channel Fleet 1904	Succeeded by Renamed Atlantic Fleet
Preceded by Former Channel Fleet	Second-in-Command, Atlantic Fleet 1904 – 1905	Succeeded by Sir A. Berkeley Milne, Bart.
Preceded by Sir Harry T. Grenfell	Second-in-Command, Mediterranean 1906 – 1907	Succeeded by H.S.H. Prince Louis of Battenberg
Preceded by New Command	Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet 1907 – 1909	Succeeded by Sir William H. May
Preceded by Sir William H. May	Second Sea Lord 1909 – 1911	Succeeded by Sir George Le C. Egerton
Preceded by Sir William H. May	Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet 1911	Succeeded by Sir George A. Callaghan
Preceded by Sir Arthur K. Wilson	First Sea Lord 1911 – 1912	Succeeded by H.S.H. Prince Louis of Battenberg
Court Appointments
Preceded by Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, Bart.	Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom 1920 – 1929	Succeeded by The Hon. Sir Stanley C. J. Colville