Anthony Seldon is the indefatigable author of over 40 books, including Churchill’s Indian Summer: The Last Conservative Government, 1951-55. His latest book, written with Jonathan Meakin, is The Cabinet Office 1916-2016: The Birth of Modern Government which in ten chapters traces the development of the Cabinet Office since it was established in December 1916. Its founding represents the start of modern British government. In the volume, Seldon details the relationship of the eleven cabinet secretaries with the prime ministers they served.
Edward Bridges was the second Cabinet Secretary, appointed by Neville Chamberlain in 1938 after the long reign of Maurice Hankey in the post. At that time the cabinet office was also divided into civil and military sides with General Hastings Ismay being appointed to head the military side.
On becoming prime minister in May 1940 Winston Churchill retained both the division as well as the individuals. Both Bridges and Ismay were kept on for the full five years of Churchill’s war premiership. The prime minister was, however, “much closer to Ismay, whose company he found more convivial than the more ascetic Bridges.” Churchill had difficulty in forgetting that Bridges had served Chamberlain, but while never losing a “certain professional distance,” they became closer over the course of the war. Bridges found that in working with Churchill you had to convince him “you were on his side” and that any criticism being offered was intended to be helpful. The cabinet secretary recalled that within days of Churchill’s becoming prime minister “the whole machinery of government was working at a pace […] quite unlike anything which had gone before.” Bridges himself worked at a furious pace, including preparing agendas and minutes for the 919 meetings of the war cabinet from 1940 to 1945 and responding to the endless stream of directives from Churchill. Seldon notes Churchill wanted his responses from Bridges and Ismay, including ones detailing complex issues, to be boiled down into a single page. Bridges thought this was harder to do than writing a novel. Ismay, for his part, adopted the “device” of including appendices to his one-page reports, with one such effort running to Appendix “T.”
As illustrated in The Cabinet Office 1916-2016, in comparison with many of his successors, most glaringly Tony Blair, Churchill came to 10 Downing Street with much experience in administering large departments of the British government, including the Home Office, the Treasury, and the Board of Trade. It was this experience and understanding of the civil service that came with it which allowed Churchill to manage the efficient operation of the government.