Bridge was born in Brighton
and studied at the Royal
College of Music in London
from 1899 to 1903 under
Charles Villiers Stanford and
others. He played the viola in a
number of string quartets,
most notably the English String
Quartet, and conducted,
sometimes deputising for
Henry Wood, before devoting
himself to composition,
receiving the patronage of
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. He
privately tutored a number of
pupils, most famously
Benjamin Britten, who later
championed his teacher's
music and paid homage to him
in the Variations on a Theme of
Frank Bridge (1937), based on
a theme from the second of
Bridge's Three Idylls for String
Quartet (1906). Bridge died in
Eastbourne.