Robert Bridges
Robert Bridges | |
|---|---|
| Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom | |
| In office 25 July 1913 – 21 April 1930 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Preceded by | Alfred Austin |
| Succeeded by | John Masefield |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Seymour Bridges 23 October 1844 |
| Died | 21 April 1930 (aged 85) Boars Hill, Berkshire, England |
| Spouse | Monica Bridges (born Waterhouse) |
| Children | Elizabeth Daryush Edward Bridges |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Oxford St Bartholomew's Hospital Eton College |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Awards | Poet Laureate |
Robert Seymour Bridges OM (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was a British poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is the author of many well-known hymns. It was through Bridges's efforts that the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins achieved posthumous fame.
Bridges was a grandson of Sir Robert Affleck, 4th Baronet, and a stepson of the vicar John Edward Nassau Molesworth. Bridges studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and then practised as a casualty physician at his teaching hospital. He served as a full physician to the Great Northern Central Hospital from 1876 until 1885. He retired as a physician in 1885, due to suffering from a lung disease. During the First World War, Bridges was one of the writers serving in Britain's War Propaganda Bureau at Wellington House.