[8] He was given command of the armoured cruiser HMS Drake on its first commission in January 1903,[9][10] and was appointed a Member of the 4th Class of the Royal Victorian Order on 5 May 1903.

[20] By October 1912 he had clashed with First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill on technical issues as well as matters relating to a perceived overriding of naval traditions.

[20] It was subsequently acknowledged, in response to questions in Parliament, that the initiative for resignation on grounds of health emanated from Churchill rather than from Bridgeman himself.

[21] In the opinion of one historian: "The combination of frequent change and weak appointees (Wilson, Bridgeman and Battenberg) ensured that the professional leadership of the Royal Navy lost its direction in the four years preceding the war.

"[22] Indeed, it was Bridgeman's efforts to blockade some of Churchill's more controversial schemes that led to his dismissal, as he himself recognized in a letter to Francis Hopwood: "I was forced out without warning, but it was not because I was too weak, but because I was too strong!

[24] In retirement he lived at Copgrove Hall near Burton Leonard in North Yorkshire[1] and officiated as Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom from 1920 until his death[25] at Nassau in The Bahamas on 17 February 1929.