Lieutenant Colonel The Hon Sir Matthew White RIDLEY(2nd Viscount Ridley, Baron Wesleydale), D.L., J.P.
1/1st Northumberland Yeomanry (Hussars) (TF)
The son of Sir Matthew White Ridley (1st Viscount Ridley) and the Honourable Mary Georgiana Ridley (nee Marjoribanks) he was born on the 6th March 1874. Educated at Eton he studied at Balliol College, Oxford. He was Initiated on the 30th October 1894 (aged 19); Passed 29th January 1895 and Raised on the 26th February 1895 resigning on 28th March 1898. Commissioned as Second Lieutenant into the Northumberland (Hussars) Imperial Yeomanry on 4th August 1897, promoted Lieutenant, 21st June 1899, Captain, 12th April 1902, Major, 4th June 1904 and Lieutenant Colonel 22nd May 1913. At the general election in 1900 he was elected the Conservative Member for the Stalybridge Constituency and resigned his seat on the death of his father in 1904. On 30th October 1910 he had been appointed Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Battalion, The Northumberland Fusiliers. In 1911 he had suffered a ruptured duodenal ulcer requiring surgery and suffered illness from then on.
The regiment was mobilised on 4th August 1914 but he was prevented from joining them due to his continuing ill health and died following another operation at Lambton House, Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 14th February 1916 and is buried in the family vault at Stannington churchyard, Northumberland.
His father, Sir Matthew White Ridley (1st Viscount Ridley) was the Provincial Grand Master of Northumberland 1886 – 1900, as indeed were other members of the family from previous generations. He was the husband of Rosamond Cornelia Gwladys Ridley (nee Guest).
There is no CWGC entry for Lt. Col. Ridley as he was buried privately.
