Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley

Ridley was born in London, the eldest son of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 4th Baronet and his wife the Hon. Cecilia Anne, daughter of James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale and his wife Cecilia Arabella Frances Barlow. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1865, he was a Fellow of All Souls for nine years.[2]

In 1868, he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Northumberland North, and held this seat until the 1885 general election, when he was defeated in his attempt to stand for the new seat of Hexham. At the 1886 general election he contested Newcastle-upon-Tyne, again unsuccessfully, but returned to Parliament in an 1886 by-election at Blackpool. Having been Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department for two years in Disraeli's administration, Sir Matthew Ridley (as he became when he succeeded his father as fifth baronet in 1877) was Financial Secretary to the Treasury in Lord Salisbury's interim government of 1885 to 1886. In 1895, after the fall of Lord Rosebery's ministry, and having already failed in April of that year to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons, Ridley became Home Secretary, and held this post until his retirement in 1900. He was that same year created Viscount Ridley and Baron Wensleydale, of Blagdon and Blyth in the County of Northumberland.[3]

Lord Ridley married Mary Georgiana Marjoribanks (1850 – 14 March 1909), daughter of The 1st Baron Tweedmouth and his wife, Isabella Weir-Hogg, on 10 December 1873.[1] They were parents to five children:

• Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Viscount Ridley (6 December 1874 – 14 February 1916)
• Cecilia Marjorie Ridley (1879 – 16 August 1896)
• Hon. Stella Ridley (born 1884), married Rupert Gwynne
• Hon. Sir Jasper Nicholas Ridley (6 January 1887 – 1 October 1951). He was a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
• Hon. Grace Ridley (1889 – 22 September 1959), married The 3rd Earl of Selborne.

Lord Ridley died aged 62 at his Blagdon Hall home in Northumberland, and was buried there.[4]

• Lucas, Reginald; Ridley, Jane (2004). "Ridley, Matthew White, first Viscount Ridley (1842–1904)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35754. Retrieved 27 June 2009. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Ridley
• History of the Ridley estate - Blagdon Estate