Edward Ettingdene Bridges, 1st Baron Bridges, KG, GCB, GCVO, PC, MC (4 August 1892 – 27 August 1969) was a British civil servant.

Born in Yattendon in Berkshire, Bridges was the son of Robert Bridges, later Poet Laureate, and Mary Monica Waterhouse, daughter of the architect Alfred Waterhouse. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. Bridges then fought in the First World War with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, achieved the rank of Captain and was awarded the Military Cross.

He later joined the Civil Service and in 1938 he was appointed Cabinet Secretary, succeeding Sir Maurice Hankey. Bridges remained in this post until 1946, when he was made Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, a position he held until 1956. He was invested a Privy Counsellor in 1953 and in 1957 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bridges, of Headley in the County of Surrey and of Saint Nicholas at Wade in the County of Kent. In 1965 he was given the additional honour of being made a Knight of the Garter.

After his retirement Lord Bridges notably served as Chancellor of Reading University. Moreover, he was given honorary degrees from several universities and appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society. He also published The State and the Arts, Romanes Lecture for 1958, Oxford, and The Treasury (Oxford University Press, 1964).

Bridges married Katharine Dianthe Farrer, daughter of Thomas Cecil Farrer, 2nd Baron Farrer on 6 June, 1922. They had four children:

• Hon. Shirley Frances Bridges (b. 1924)
• Thomas Edward Bridges, 2nd Baron Bridges (b. 1927) (a diplomat)
• Hon. Robert Bridges (b. 1930) (an architect)
• Hon. Margaret Evelyn Bridges (b. 1932) (a medieval historian)

Lord Bridges died at Winterfold Heath, Surrey, on 27 August, 1969, aged 77. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Thomas, a prominent diplomat who notably served as British Ambassador to Italy from 1983 to 1987.

Offices held

References

• Family tree
• Peerage