In 1865, he purchased a commission into the Scots Fusilier Guards as an ensign and lieutenant[4] and four years later became a lieutenant and captain.[5]
Bridgeman was nominated an aide-de-camp to Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1875, a position he held until the following year.[6] He was promoted to captain and lieutenant-colonel in 1877.[7] A year later, Bridgeman accompanied a special mission sent to Spain and attended the marriage of King Alfonso XII, where he was invested a knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.[6] In 1883 Bridgeman was advanced to major.[8]
He took part in the Suakin Expedition in 1885 and upon his return he entered the British House of Commons, having been elected for Bolton; he represented the constituency for a decade until 1895.[9] At three previous elections he had unsuccessfully contested Stafford in 1874, Tamworth in 1878, and Bolton itself in 1880.[10]
Bridgeman married, firstly, Gertude Cecilia Hanbury, daughter of George Hanbury, on 26 July 1883; they had five children.[15] She died in 1911, and after two years as a widower, Bridgeman married, secondly, Agnes Florence Briscoe, daughter of Richard Holt Briscoe, on 27 November 1913.[15]
^Kelly's Handbook of the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1916. p. 233.
^"Death of Brigadier-General the Hon. F.C. Bridgeman". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 21 September 1917. p. 2.
^William Morris Gallery Catalogue for: "Christopher Whall 1849-1924:Arts & Crafts Stained Glass Worker-Exhibition 17th November 1979-3rd February 1980". An exhibition at which Whall's designs for stained glass windows were shown
References
Debrett, John (1886). Robert Henry Mair (ed.). Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench. London: Dean & Son Ltd.
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1895). Armorial Families. Edinburgh: Grange Publishing Works.
Charles Roger Dod; Robert Phipps Dod (1915). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland 1915. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Ltd.
(Marquis of Ruvigny & Raineval) de Massue, Melville Henry (1994). Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Clarence Volume. London: Genealogical Publishing Co. ISBN0-8063-1432-X.
Welch, Reginald Courtenay (1894). The Harrow School Register, 1801–1893. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Burke, John (1914). Ashworth P. Burke (ed.). Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerag, Baronetage and Knightage 1914. London: Harrison and Sons Ltd.