Orlando Bridgeman, 5th 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 20000 acre.

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 and was lieutenant-colonel of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment). He fought in the Second Boer War in 1899 and the following year and in the First World War from 1915. 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 in 1902. Subsequently he was private secretary to Salisbury's successor Arthur Balfour 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:


 * Lady Helen Diana Bridgeman (22 June 1907 – 7 May 1967), married Sir Robert Henry Edward Abdy, 5th Bt. (11 September 1896 – 17 November 1976) on 10 February 1930 and divorced in 1962
 * The Hon. Ursula Mary Bridgeman (12 July 1909 – 6 May 1912)
 * Gerald Michael Orlando Bridgeman, 6th Earl of Bradford (29 September 1911 – 30 August 1981)
 * Lady Anne Pamela Bridgeman (12 June 1913 – 2009), married Lieutenant-Colonel Weetman John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (27 February 1910 – 19 January 1995) on 19 July 1939 and divorced in 1950
 * Lady Joan Serena Bridgeman (29 May 1916 – 23 July 1935)