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George Allardice Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell (25 May 1865 – 5 December 1934), known as Sir George Riddell, Bt, between 1918 and 1920, was a British solicitor, newspaper proprietor and public servant.


Background and education

Riddell was born at 2 Stanhope Place, Loughborough Road, Brixton Heath, London, the son of James Riddell, a photographer, and Isabel (née Young). He was educated privately, became a clerk in a
solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
's office, and qualified as a solicitor himself in 1888, taking top place in his final exams.George Allardice Riddell, 1st and last Baron Riddell
thepeerage.com


Career

After making a fortune Riddell left the law and went into the newspaper business. By 1903 he was managing director of the '' News of the World'' and also owned other newspapers. A close friend and ally of
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...
, he was
knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
in 1909, on the recommendation of H. H. Asquith. During the First World War, he liaised between the government and the press and represented the British press barons at the Paris Peace Conference and later peace conferences. For these services he was created a Baronet, of Walton Heath in the County of Surrey, in 1918 and raised to the peerage as Baron Riddell, of Walton Heath in the County of Surrey, in the
1920 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1920 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were published on 1 January 1920 and 30 March 1920 (referred to as the 1920 civil ...
. The appointment almost foundered—he had been secretly divorced in 1900 and that would have disqualified him in the king's view. Riddell was the author of several books, among them ''Some Things that Matter'' (1922), ''Lord Riddell's War Diary, 1914–1918'', and ''Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After''. The professor of history at
Brock University Brock University is a public university, public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The ...
, John M. McEwen, considered the ''War Diary'' to be the most historically valuable of the three. In the published versions Riddell omitted much sensitive information and in February 1935 the original diaries were deposited in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...
"to be reserved from the Public use for fifty years". In 1986 these were edited by McEwen, who included unpublished material that shed new light on political events. A survey of 100 books on this era of British history discovered that nine-tenths of them contained references to Riddell, with the majority quoting from his published works. He was not impressed by his contemporary, Winston Churchill. On the other hand, he was a close confidant and financial supporter of
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...
from 1908 to 1922. His perceptive diary led John Grigg to say he was "the nearest equivalent to a Boswell in Lloyd George's life". In the summer of 1917, during Lloyd George's first year as prime minister, Riddell assessed his personality:
His energy, capacity for work, and power of recuperation are remarkable. He has an extraordinary memory, imagination, and the art of getting at the root of a matter....He is not afraid of responsibility, and has no respect for tradition or convention. He is always ready to examine, scrap or revise established theories and practices. These qualities give him unlimited confidence in himself.... He is one of the craftiest of men, and his extraordinary charm of manner not only wins him friends, but does much to soften the asperities of his opponents and enemies. He is full of humour and a born actor....He has an instinctive power of divining the thoughts and intentions of people with whom he is conversing. His chief defects are: (1) Lack of appreciation of existing institutions, organisations, and stolid, dull people...their ways are not his ways and their methods are not his methods. (2) Fondness for a grandiose scheme in preference to an attempt to improve existing machinery. (3) Disregard of difficulties in carrying out big projects...he is not a man of detail.Grigg, John (2002). "Lloyd George's Boswell" in ''Lloyd George: war leader, 1916–1918''. Penguin Books. pp. 216–25, quote at pp. 220–21. .
In 1905, Riddell and two associates took control of
Walton Heath Golf Club Walton Heath Golf Club is a golf club in England, near Walton-on-the-Hill in Surrey, southwest of London. Founded in 1903, the club comprises two 18-hole golf courses, both of which are well known for having heather covering many of the areas ...
, which he would control until his death. Riddell brought the News of the World Matchplay Championship to the club, which had been launched in 1903 at Sunningdale. Walton Heath would be the host course for the championship 21 times. Riddell was chairman of the committee that built and opened London's first public golf courses in Richmond Park, which were opened in 1923 and 1925.


Personal life

Riddell was twice married: #Firstly, to Grace Edith Williams in 1888, marriage ended in divorce in 1900. #Secondly to his cousin Annie Molison Allardice, in 1900. Riddell kept his divorce secret, until the publisher
Sir Hedley Le Bas Sir Hedley Francis Le Bas (1868–1926) was a British publisher and advertising executive. He is best known for the World War I recruiting campaign using the slogan " Your Country Needs You". Early life He was born in Jersey on 19 May 1868, the ...
revealed it in 1915. At the time the social stigma attached to his divorce, where legally he was the guilty party, would have ruled out his elevation to the peerage in 1920. Lloyd George insisted, with press magnates, against the king's wishes. The award of the barony broke through a significant parliamentary convention. Dying on 5 December 1934, aged 69, Riddell was childless, and his baronetcy and barony became extinct.


Footnotes


References

* Obituary, '' The Times'', 6 December 1934 * McEwen, John M. ed. ''The Riddell Diaries, 1908-1923'' (1986). * Lord Riddell
''Lord Riddells Intimate Diary Of The Peace Conference And After''
(1933) * Lord Riddell
''More Pages From My Diary 1908–1914''
(1934)


External links

*
Personal diaries
circa WWI {{DEFAULTSORT:Riddell, George 1865 births 1934 deaths People from Brixton Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom British newspaper publishers (people) English solicitors Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor Barons created by George V