William Bridgeford was born on 28 July 1894 at Smeaton in Victoria to George Bridgeford, a Scottish-born baker, and his wife Christina Gordon. After his formative schooling, he attended Ballarat High School.
In 1913, Bridgeford was accepted into the Royal Military College, Duntroon. Although the course was four years long, he was graduated early in June 1915 with the rest of his class due to Australia's growing commitment to the First World War. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Permanent Military Force, but volunteered for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force the following month and was posted to the 29th Infantry Battalion in Egypt. He did not see action with them, for in February 1916 the machine gun sections of the 8th Infantry Brigade, of which the 29th Infantry Battalion was a part, were transferred to the brigade's newly formed 8th Machine Gun Company. In 1918 the 5th Division's machine gun companies became part of the 5th Machine Gun Battalion. Bridgeford served with the 8th Machine Gun Company on the Western Front, where he was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during the Battle of Fromelles and later undertook staff training at brigade and divisional level. In April 1918 he was gassed and subsequently evacuated but he returned to his unit in August and was promoted to temporary major the following month. After the armistice was signed in November 1918, Bridgeford worked as a staff officer before returning to Australia in early 1919.
Between the wars
Due to widescale reductions in the Army following the demobilisation process, Bridgeford reverted to his substantive rank of lieutenant in the Permanent Military Force, although he continued to hold his AIF rank as an honorary rank. In 1922 he married Phyllis Wallinea, with whom he would later have a son. He held a number of staff positions throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including a position on the staff at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1925–26. He attended the Staff College, Quetta in British India the following year. On returning to Australia, he undertook duties as an instructor and as a staff officer. In 1938 he attended the Imperial Defence College in London and upon the outbreak of the Second World War he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and served as the military liaison to the British government.
Following the end of the war, Bridgeford was confirmed as a major general and took up a position as quartermaster general of the Army and as a member of the Military Board. In June 1950 he led an Australian mission to Malaya before being promoted to lieutenant general the following year and taking up the position of Commander-in-Chief of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force and the British Commonwealth Forces Korea, replacing Lieutenant General Sir Horace Robertson. For his services he was later awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States government. The role was a purely administrative one and Bridgeford had no control over combat operations, however, it was not without controversy. In May 1952 the Canadian government requested that he be relieved after he failed to consult them about deploying Canadian troops to guard prisoners of war at Koje-do. Bridgeford, however, retained his position as both the British and Australian governments supported him, and he stayed on until February 1953, when he was replaced by Lieutenant General Henry Wells. He returned to Australia and retired from the military a month later with the honorary rank of lieutenant general.
