Edward, the first Baron Bridges, Chairman of the British Council and Chancellor of Reading University, after distinguished service as an infantry officer in the European War of 1914 to 1918, returned to Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he is an honorary Fellow. He is also a Fellow of All Souls College and of the Royal Society.
In 1919 he entered the Treasury in Whitehall, of which in due course he was appointed permanent Secretary. His work in that capacity was recognized by all observers as of the first order. In 1956 he retired from the Treasury, but it is familiar that he continues his many and varied public activities.
He is, for example, Chairman not only of the Governing Board of the National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science, but also of the Governors of the London School of Economics; he is a Trustee of the Pilgrim Trust. But to complete the catalogue of his generous labours would require a much longer survey than is possible now.
Edward Bridges was knighted in 1939, and was created Baron Bridges of Headley in Surrey and of St Nicholas at Wade in Kent, England, three years ago.
He was Secretary to the Cabinet during that extraordinary and complex period of modern history, the war years from 1938 to 1946. The son of one of the finest of England's Poets Laureate, Dr Robert Bridges, he inherits no little literary ability, and his occasional papers on some of the subjects of which he is master abound in wit and wisdom. The Rede Lecture for 1950 entitled "Portrait of a Profession: the Civil Service Tradition", is an excellent instance of this.
Citation written and delivered by Dr the Hon A M Rodrigues, Chairman of the Jubilee Committee.
