Sir Edward Ridley, PC (20 August 1843 – 14 October 1928) was an English barrister, judge and Conservative politician.

Background and political career

He was born in

Stannington, Northumberland Stannington is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England. The population of the civil parish was 1,219 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 1,280 at the 2011 Census. Stannington is divided into three: Stannington North-East Quarter, St ...

, 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

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succeeded as fifth baronet and was created a viscount in 1900 after serving as Home Secretary. Ridley was educated at Harrow and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

. He was a fellow of

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

, 1866–1882. He was MP for South Northumberland from 1878 to 1880.

Legal 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

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

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