Rudy Bambridge
{{short description|French Polynesian politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
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|constituency_AM11 = Windward Islands
|assembly11 = French Polynesian
|term_start11 = 3 November 1957
|term_end11 = March 1969
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|birth_date = 28 February 1926{{cite web |url=http://www.assemblee.pf/histoire |title=1957-1959 : La première autonomie interne: Les élus remarquables |publisher=Assemblée de la Polynésie française |access-date=17 May 2023}}
|birth_place = Papeete, Tahiti
|nationality = French
|death_date = 1982
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|party = Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance
Tahitian Union
Tahitian Democratic Union
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Rudolf Tanahe Bambridge (28 February 1926 - 1982) was a French Polynesian lawyer and politician, who led the anti-independence Tahitian Union during the 1950s and 1960s. He was the son of politician Tony Bambridge.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-325241753/view?sectionId=nla.obj-333902916 |title=Death Of Tony Bambridge: He Helped To Keep French Polynesia French |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=35 |issue=9 |page=36 |date=1 September 1964 |access-date=17 May 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Bambridge was born in Papeete and educated in Noumea, New Caledonia. After studying law in France he worked as a defence lawyer in Papeete. At the behest of his father he became involved in politics to oppose the pro-independence Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People (RDPT). He ran for the French National Assembly as a candidate for the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance in the 1956 French legislative election, losing to Pouvanaa a Oopa. He then founded the Tahitian Union to contest the 1957 French Polynesian legislative election, and was elected to the Assembly of French Polynesia. In the Assembly, he led opposition to the RDPT government, and was a major figure in the riots which overturned its income tax policy and toppled the government.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-320274070/view?sectionId=nla.obj-364379708 |title=WORK CEASES IN PAPEETE Tahiti Assembly Stoned: New Tax Hurriedly Repealed |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=XXVIII |issue=10 |page=14 |date=1 May 1958 |via=National Library of Australia}} He campaigned against independence in the 1958 French Polynesian constitutional referendum, and served as prosecutor in Oopa's subsequent arson trial. Following Oopa's conviction, he was stripped of his seat in the National Assembly, and Bambridge ran in the resulting by-election, but lost to Marcel Oopa.
He was re-elected to the Assembly at the 1962 election as leader of the UT,{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-324419870/view?partId=nla.obj-324461340#page/n10/mode/1up |title=The Complicated Politics of Polynesia |date=1 January 1963 |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=XXXIII |issue=6 |page=9 |access-date=17 May 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} and again at the 1967 election.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-326775210/view?sectionId=nla.obj-335545642 |title=STRONG VOTE FOR AUTONOMY IN FRENCH POLYNESIA |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=38 |issue=10 |page=25 |date=1 October 1967 |access-date=17 May 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} He resigned his seat in the Assembly in March 1969 to take up a position on the French Economic and Social Council.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-327781502/view?sectionId=nla.obj-336031111 |title=Bambridge's new post |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=40 |issue=4 |page=30 |date=1 April 1969 |access-date=17 May 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} In July 1971 he resigned as president of the UT-UDR in favour of Gaston Flosse.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-332062642/view?sectionId=nla.obj-337623927 |title=NEW PRESIDENT FOR UT-UDR |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=42 |issue=9 |page=136 |date=1 September 1971 |access-date=17 May 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} He subsequently retired from political life.