Robert Bridges

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.