Orlando George Charles Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford, PC, DL (24 April 1819 – 12 March 1898), styled Viscount Newport between 1825 and 1865, was a British courtier and Conservative politician. In a ministerial career spanning over thirty years, he notably served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household between 1866 and 1868 and as Master of the Horse between 1874 and 1880 and again between 1885 and 1886.
Background and education
Bridgeman was born at Nottingham Place, Marylebone, London, the eldest son of George Bridgeman, 2nd Earl of Bradford, and his wife Georgina Elizabeth Moncreiffe, daughter of Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, 5th Baronet. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.[1] He became known by the courtesy title Viscount Newport when his father succeeded in the earldom of Bradford in 1825 when he also inherited 21,000 acres across England.[2]
Lord Bradford was a Thoroughbred racehorse owner, with colours of white, scarlet sleeves, and a black cap borne by his jockeys. He won the Cesarewitch at Newmarket in 1865 with Salpinctes and, in 1879, with Chippendale who came second in two successive races for the same cup. He ultimately won the 1892 Derby with Sir Hugo.[15]
The Countess was noted for "intelligence, gaiety and sympathy".[18]Benjamin Disraeli was deeply attached to both Lady Bradford and her sister Anne, Countess of Chesterfield. After his wife's death in 1872, his feelings seem to have become even warmer and it has been suggested that he would have proposed marriage had Lady Bradford been free to marry.[19]
The Countess of Bradford died in November 1894. Lord Bradford died after a long illness at Weston Park, Staffordshire, in March 1898, aged 78. He was buried on 12 March 1898 at Weston-under-Lizard. His eldest son George succeeded in the earldom.
^Weyman, Henry T. (1929). "Shropshire M.P.s – Memoirs". Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, Series 4, Volume XII. p. 35.
^Beale, Catherine (2011). Born out of Wenlock, William Penny Brookes and the British origins of the modern Olympics. DB Publishing. pp. 87–89, 184. ISBN978-1-85983-967-6.