British nobleman
Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley
KG
,
GCVO
,
TD
,
DL
(29 July 1925 ? 22 March 2012)
[1]
was a British nobleman. He was
Lord Steward of the Household
from 1989 to 2001.
[2]
Background, education and military service
[
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]
Ridley was the son of
Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Viscount Ridley
, and Ursula Lutyens, daughter of
Sir Edwin Lutyens
. His younger brother
Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale
was a
Conservative Party
politician who served as a government minister for nearly all of
Margaret Thatcher
's years as prime minister.
[3]
Matthew Ridley was educated at
Eton College
and spent several months studying agriculture at King's College, University of Durham (now Newcastle University). The Second World War interrupted his education and he joined the
Coldstream Guards
, serving in Normandy and Germany in 1944?45. He then studied at Oxford, graduating with a degree in Agriculture from
Balliol College
in 1948.
[3]
He then served as an
aide-de-camp
to Sir
Evelyn Baring
, then
Governor of Kenya
. During this time he furthered his interest in nature and science. In 1955, Ridley and zoologist
Lord Richard Percy
spent four months on an uninhabited island in the
Seychelles
studying the plight of the dwindling
sooty tern
.
[3]
Later he joined the
Territorial Army
, reaching the rank of
Brevet
Colonel
in the
Northumberland Hussars
: he became Honorary Colonel of that unit in 1979.
[3]
Public life
[
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]
Ridley succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1964. He was Chairman of Northumberland County Council from 1967 to 1979.
[3]
He chaired several companies and societies, before serving as Chancellor of the
University of Newcastle
from 1988 to 1999, as
Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland
from 1984 to 2000,
[4]
and as
Lord Steward of the Household
from 1989 to 2001.
[5]
He was succeeded by the
Duke of Abercorn
as Lord Steward in 2001.
He was made a Knight Companion of the
Order of the Garter
in 1992
[6]
and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the
Royal Victorian Order
in 1994. He retired in 1999 and did not stand for election as a hereditary peer after the
House of Lords Act
.
[3]
Marriage and children
[
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]
Ridley was married on 3 January 1953 to Lady Anne Katharine Gabrielle Lumley (born 16 November 1928, died 2006), daughter of
Lawrence Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough
. They had four children together:
Ridley died on 22 March 2012 and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his only son.
[3]
References
[
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]
External links
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]
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