Charles John Brydges was born in London, England, on 23 February 1827, the son of Thomas and Mary Brydges. He was baptized 30 May 1827 at Saint Leonards, Shoreditch, London, England. As a young man he learned railway management with the London and South Western Railway

London and South Western Railway

The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...

. In 1852 he came to Canada to become the managing director of the Great Western Railroad which was incorporated to build a line from Burlington Bay to Lake Huron. From 1862 to 1874 he was general manager of the competing Grand Trunk Railway

Grand Trunk Railway

The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...

. Afterwards he became one of the Commissioners of the Intercolonial Railway which connected Montreal, Quebec with Halifax, Nova Scotia

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

. From 1879 until his death he was a Land Commissioner for the Hudson’s Bay Company in Winnipeg.

He died in Winnipeg on 16 February 1889.