Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Viscount Ridley

Who was Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Viscount Ridley?

Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Viscount Ridley, DL JP was a British Conservative politician.

Ridley was the son and heir of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley and the Hon. Mary Georgiana Marjoribanks. He was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated as BA in 1897.

He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Stalybridge at the 1900 general election. His father had been raised to the peerage as Viscount Ridley that year so he sat under his courtesy title Baron Wensleydale until he vacated the seat on succeeding to his father's peerage in 1904. While in parliament he also served as parliamentary private secretary to the Home Secretary, Charles Ritchie from 1900 to 1902, and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Austen Chamberlain from 1902 to 1904. He was Chairman of the Tariff Reform League, in succession to its founder, Arthur Pearson.

On 21 May 1901, he was appointed a DL of the County of Northumberland, and in 1904 a JP.

In 1897 he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry, was promoted Captain, then Major in 1904, becoming Lieutenant Colonel in command in 1913. He was in command of the regiment in the early months of the First World War but did not go abroad and relinquished command in 1915, remaining on the Territorial Force reserve of officers. He was also honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers from 1910.