Background and political career
He was born inLegal career
Ridley was called to the bar in 1868 and took silk in 1892. From 1886 to 1897, he was an Official Referee. In 1897, Ridley was appointed a Justice of the High Court and assigned to the King's Bench Division, receiving the customary knighthood. Ridley had been nominated by Lord Halsbury, who had a reputation for appointing unqualified lawyers to the bench on party political grounds. Ridley's appointment "aroused an exceptional storm of public and private criticism" and "was greeted with horror". The ''Law Journal'' said that " e appointment can be defended on no ground whatsoever. It would be easy to name fifty members of the Bar with a better claim." ''The Solicitors' Journal'' described it as "a grave mistake" ''The Law Times'' wrote that:Unquestionable as are the virtues of Mr. Edward Ridley, Q.C.—for some years the favourite Official referee—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. It is a curiosity."He resigned from the bench in 1917 and was sworn of the
Assessments
On Ridley's death, Sir Frederick Pollock had written: "Sir E. Ridley, good scholar, Fellow of All Souls, successful, ''sicut dicunt'' o 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". Lord Justice MacKinnon called Ridley "the worst judge I have appeared before", saying that "he had a perverse instinct for unfairness".MacKinnon, "The Origin of the Commercial Court," (1944) LQR (60), 324–325.Personal life
Ridley married Alice Davenport, daughter of William Bromley-Davenport of Cheshire. They had two sons, Edward Davenport Ridley (1883–1934) and Cecil Guy Ridley (1885–1947).References
External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ridley, Edward 1843 births 1928 deaths English King's Counsel UK MPs 1874–1880 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Knights Bachelor Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Queen's Bench Division judges Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People from Stannington, Northumberland Official Referees (England and Wales) People educated at Harrow School