Edward Ridley

Sir Edward Ridley QC (20 August 1843 – 14 October 1928) was an English barrister, judge and Conservative politician, MP for South Northumberland from 1878–80.[1][2]

Sir Edward Ridley, from Vanity Fair.

Early life and education

He was born in Stannington, Northumberland,[3] the younger son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 4th Baronet, and his wife, Hon. Cecilia Ann, eldest daughter of Sir James Parke, afterwards Baron Wensleydale. His eldest brother Matthew succeeded as fifth baronet and was created a viscount in 1900 after serving as Home Secretary.[2][4]

Ridley was educated at Harrow and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1866–1882.[4]

Career and legacy

Ridley was called to the bar in 1868, took silk in 1892, and was knighted in 1897.[2]

Giving the Plymouth Law Society's Annual Pilgrim Fathers Lecture in December 2009, Lord Justice Toulson recounted that Ridley's appointment to the High Court bench in 1897 had been "greeted with horror"[5][6] and that The Law Times had written "no-one will believe that he would have been appointed to the High Court Bench but for his connections. […] Such an innovation, we repeat, was only possible where the hard-working official, the bearer of so many heavy burdens of the High Court judges, was highly connected. This is Ridleyism. Let it be known hereafter as Ridleyism […]".[5][7] Toulson further noted that Ridley's appointment had been described by The Solicitors' Journal as "a grave mistake"[5][7] and that on Ridley's death Sir Frederick Pollock had written: "Sir E. Ridley, good scholar, Fellow of All Souls, successful, sicut dicunt [so they say], as an Official Referee, and by general opinion of the Bar the worst High Court judge of our time, ill-tempered and grossly unfair: which is rather a mystery".[5][7][8] Lord Justice MacKinnon called Ridley "the worst judge I have appeared before", saying that "he had a perverse instinct for unfairness".[5][9]

Personal life

Ridley married Alice Davenport, daughter of William Bromley-Davenport of Cheshire. They had two sons, Edward Davenport Ridley MC (1883–1934) and Cecil Guy Ridley CBE (1885–1947).

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References
  1. "Ridley, Rt Hon. Sir Edward, (1843–14 Oct. 1928), PC 1917; Judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, 1897–1917". Who's Who. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  2. "Obituary: Sir Edward Ridley – Judge And Scholar". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 15 October 1928. p. 21.
  3. 1861 England Census
  4. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  5. Toulson, Roger (3 December 2009). "Judging judicial appointments" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  6. Stevens, Robert (18 October 2002). The English Judges: Their Role in the Changing Constitution. Hart Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 978-1841132266.
  7. Heuston, R. F. V. (1964). Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1885 – 1940). Clarendon Press. p. 51. ASIN B0000CM3YN.
  8. DeWolfe, Mark, ed. (1941). Holmes-Pollock Letters: The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Sir Edward Pollock 1874-1932. II. Harvard University Press. p. 232. ASIN B00460Z6Z4.
  9. MacKinnon, "The Origin of the Commercial Court," (1944) LQR (60), 324–325.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Hon. Henry Liddell
Wentworth Beaumont		 Member of Parliament for South Northumberland
1878 – 1880
With: Wentworth Beaumont		 Succeeded by
Albert Grey
Wentworth Beaumont


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