John Bridge

Who was John Bridge?

Lieutenant Commander John Bridge GC, GM & bar was a British bomb disposal expert of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War. Awarded the George Cross, he was the first person to be awarded a bar to the George Medal.

John Bridge was born on 5 February 1915 at Culcheth, near Warrington in Lancashire and attended Leigh Grammar School and the University of London to read Physics. After training as a teacher he took up a post at Firth Park Secondary School in Sheffield until he volunteered for the Navy in 1940.

Bridge received the George Medal for his leadership of a squad which defused a bomb with a delayed action fuse in September 1940. In March 1941, during which he defused 15 bombs, he received a King's Commendation for Brave Conduct for making safe a bomb which had fallen in the Naval dockyard at HMNB Devonport. In October 1941 he was awarded a bar to his George Medal after defusing a bomb in the docks in Falmouth.

He served as a naval bomb safety officer during the Normandy Landings of June 1944, defusing many bombs, mines and shells, before clearing mines in the river Scheldt and habour basins in September of that year.