The Honorable Richard Orlando Beaconsfield Bridgeman was born on February 28, 1879 in the Chelsea section of London, England. He was the sixth of the seven children of George Cecil Orlando Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford and Lady Ida Frances Annabella Lumley, daughter of Richard George Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarborough.

Bridgeman has a couple of connections to royalty. His mother served for 35 years as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary, wife of King George V, first while she was Princess of Wales and then also when she was Queen Consort. In addition, one of Richard’s sisters, Lady Margaret Alice Bridgeman, married John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch and was the mother of Lady Alice Christabel Montagu-Douglas-Scott who married Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, son of King George V. Therefore, Bridgeman was the uncle of Lady Alice and is the great uncle of the current Duke of Gloucester who is also named Richard.

Bridgeman was christened on April 10, 1879 at the Castle Bromwich Hall church with close family friend, former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, as one of his godparents. He grew up with his six siblings at Castle Bromwich Hall and at Weston Park.

His six siblings were:

  • Lady Beatrice Bridgeman (1870 – 1952), married Colonel Rt. Hon. Ernest Pretyman
  • Lady Margaret Bridgeman (1872 – 1954), married John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch
  • Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford (1873 – 1957), married The Hon. Margaret Bruce
  • Lady Helena Bridgeman (1875 – 1947), married Osbert Molyneux, 6th Earl of Sefton
  • Lady Florence Bridgeman (1877 – 1936), married Ronald Norman
  • Lieutenant-Colonel The Hon. Henry Bridgeman (1882 – 1972), married Joan Constable-Maxwell

Bridgeman joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen. He later commanded gunboats in China and a destroyer in the North Sea and served during the Boer War. In 1911, Bridgeman served as First Lieutenant aboard the RMS Medina which took King George V and Queen Mary to India for the Delhi Durbar.  In 1914, during World War I, he served as Commander of HMS Hyacinth, a ship of the East Coast of Africa Blockading Squadron.  Then in 1915, during the operation to destroy the German cruiser SMS Königsberg, Bridgeman participated in preliminary reconnaissance as an observer in seaplanes. With the use of his sketches and photographs, it was possible to determine the correct position of Königsberg and severely damage it. For his work on that mission, Bridgeman received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

On January 6, 1917, Bridgeman, acting as the observer, set off on a reconnaissance flight over the Rufiji River Delta with pilot and aviation pioneer Edwin Moon. They were forced to land because of engine trouble and landed in a creek of the Rufiji River Delta. Forced to destroy the seaplane to avoid its capture by the Germans, Bridgeman and Edwin Moon then spent three days in the delta trying to avoid capture. During this time, they had little or nothing to eat and had to continually swim across the creeks because the vegetation on the banks was impenetrable. On January 7, they constructed a raft from the window frame of a house. After two days of drifting on the raft, they were swept out to sea on the morning of January 9. Bridgeman was not a strong swimmer and died of exhaustion and exposure. Edwin Moon tried to keep Bridgeman’s body on the raft, but it slipped off into the sea. After Moon had been on the raft for thirteen hours, the tide turned, and the raft was tossed upon the shore. Moon was rescued by natives who handed him over to the Germans. The body of Commander The Honorable Richard Bridgeman washed ashore a few days afterward and was buried by the Germans. Moon was held in a prisoner of war camp until November of 1917. After his release from the prisoner of war camp, Moon, who had previously received a Distinguished Service Order (DSO), received a bar for his DSO for the display of “the greatest gallantry in attempting to save the life of his companion.” Bridgeman’s remains were later re-buried in the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery now in Tanzania. He is also commemorated locally on Castle Bromwich War Memorial, and on the memorial plaque in St Mary and St Margaret Church.