Maurice Roy Ridley (25 January 1890, in

Orcheston St Mary Orcheston ) is a civil parish and village in Wiltshire, England, lying on Salisbury Plain less than a mile north-west of neighbouring Shrewton. The present-day parish combines the two former parishes of Orcheston St Mary and Orcheston St George ...

– 12 June 1969) was a writer and poet, Fellow and Chaplain of

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

. He was also a visiting professor at Bowdoin under the auspices of the Tallman Foundation, and shortly thereafter.

Career

Ridley was educated at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

and

.Pine, L. G. (ed.), ''The Author's and Writer's Who's Who'', 4th edn, 1960, p. 330 From 1920 to 1945 he was a Fellow and Tutor of Balliol. Ridley spent 1930–1 as a visiting professor at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

under the auspices of the Tallman Foundation. He was a lecturer at Bedford College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, from 1948. He earned a Doctorate of Humane Letters therein.

In popular culture

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

based the physical description of her fictional character

Lord Peter Wimsey Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A dilettante who solves mysteries for ...

(the archetypal British gentleman detective and aristocratic super sleuth extraordinaire) on that of Ridley after seeing him read his Newdigate Prize-winning poem "Oxford" at the Encaenia ceremony in July 1913.

Awards

* Newdigate Prize, 1913

Works

* * * * *

References

1890 births 1969 deaths Bowdoin College faculty Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford 20th-century Church of England clergy Academics of Bedford College, London Bowdoin College people {{UK-writer-stub