Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley DL (25 July 184228 November 1904), known as Sir Matthew White Ridley, 5th Baronet, from 1877 to 1904, was a British Conservative politician and statesman. He was the eldest son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 4th Baronet, of Blagdon and his wife Cecilia Anne Parke. His maternal grandparents were James Parke, Baron Wensleydale and his wife Cecilia Arabella Frances Barlow.

[edit] Biography

Ridley was born in London and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. After graduating BA in 1865, he was a Fellow of All Souls for nine years. In 1868, he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Northumberland North, and held this seat for seventeen years before being returned as member for the Blackpool Division of North Lancashire in 1886.

Having been Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department for two years in Disraeli's administration, Sir Matthew Ridley (as he became when he succeeded his father as fifth baronet in 1877) was Financial Secretary to the Treasury in Lord Salisbury's interim government of 1885 to 1886. In 1895, after the fall of Lord Rosbery's ministry, and having already failed in April of that year to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons, Ridley became Home Secretary, and held this post until his retirement in 1900. He was that same year created Viscount Ridley and Baron Wensleydale, of Blagdon and Blyth in the County of Northumberland.

Lord Ridley died aged 62 at his Blagdon home, and was buried there.

[edit] Marriage and children

On December 10, 1873, Ridley married Mary Georgiana Marjoribanks (1850 - March 14, 1909). His wife was a daughter of Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth and his wife Isabella Weir-Hogg. They were parents to five children:

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Matthew Ridley, 4th Baronet
Lord Henry Percy
Member of Parliament for North Northumberland
2-seat constituency
(with Henry Percy)

18681885
Succeeded by
(constituency abolished)
Preceded by
Frederick Stanley
Member of Parliament for Blackpool
18861900
Succeeded by
Henry Wilson Worsley-Taylor
Political offices
Preceded by
Sir Henry Selwin-Ibbetson
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
1878–1880
Succeeded by
Arthur Wellesley Peel
Preceded by
Henry Thurstan Holland
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
1885–1886
Succeeded by
William Jackson
Preceded by
Herbert Henry Asquith
Home Secretary
1895–1900
Succeeded by
Charles Thomson Ritchie
Baronetage of Great Britain
Preceded by
Matthew Ridley
Baronet
(of Blagdon, Northumberland)
1877–1904
Succeeded by
Matthew White Ridley
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
(new creation)
Viscount Ridley
1900–1904
Succeeded by
Matthew White Ridley

[edit] References