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Joseph West Ridgeway

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Colonel, The Right Honourable
Sir Joseph West Ridgeway
GCB GCMG KCSI
18th Governor of British Ceylon
In office
10 February 1896 – 19 November 1903
MonarchsVictoria, Edward VII
Preceded byEdward Noël Walker
(Acting governor)
Succeeded bySir Everard im Thurn
(Acting governor)
11th Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man
In office
1893–1895
MonarchVictoria
Preceded bySir Spencer Walpole
Succeeded byThe Lord Henniker
Personal details
BornJoseph West Ridgeway
16 May 1844
High Roding, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Died16 April 1930(1930-04-16) (aged 85)
London, England
SpouseCarolina Ellen "Lina" Bewicke
Military service
Branch/serviceBengal Infantry
Years of service
1860–1869
RankColonel

Sir Joseph West Ridgeway, GCB, GCMG, KCSI, PC (Ire) (16 May 1844 – 16 April 1930), known as Sir West Ridgeway, was a British civil servant and colonial governor. He was involved in the MacDonald Affair, when sodomy and child molestation charges were brought against Hector Archibald MacDonald, commander of British forces in British Ceylon. He brought MacDonald back to England hoping to avoid a scandal, but MacDonald still committed suicide.

Military career

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Educated at St Paul's School, London, Ridgeway was commissioned into the Bengal Infantry in 1860.[1] In 1869 he was selected for civil employment in India.[1] In 1881 he married Carolina Ellen "Lina" Bewicke.[1]

Colonial service

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In 1884 Ridgeway was given command of the Indian section of the Afghan Boundary Commission, established by Russia and the United Kingdom to determine the northern boundary of Afghanistan.[1] The following year he became Chief Commissioner.[2] He was Under-Secretary for Ireland from 1887 to 1892, and Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man from 1893 to 1895.[3][4]

He was Governor of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from 1896 to 1903.[3][5] During that time, he was involved in bringing charges of sodomy and pederasty against Hector MacDonald, commander of the troops in Ceylon. Ridgeway advised MacDonald to return to London, his main concern being to avoid a massive scandal: "Some, indeed most, of his victims ... are the sons of the best-known men in the Colony, English and native", he wrote, noting that he had persuaded the local press to keep quiet in hopes that "no more mud" would be stirred up.[6] After facing increasing pressure from the allegations, MacDonald committed suicide in 1903.

He stood unsuccessfully for election to the House of Commons as a Liberal, in the City of London in 1906 and in the London University constituency at the election of January 1910.

From 1910 to 1926, he was President of the North Borneo Chartered Company, which controlled the territory of North Borneo.

Honours

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A species of Asian snake, Lytorhynchus ridgewayi, is named in his honour.[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Joseph West Ridgeway at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ Salisbury, Robert (2020). William Simpson and the Crisis in Central Asia, 1884-5. ISBN 978-1-5272-7047-3
  3. ^ a b Men and Women of the Time : A Dictionary of Contemporaries by Victor Plarr, 1899, p. 912 (via Google Books)
  4. ^ "Onchan Online A Tour of Onchan, Round The Edges". Archived from the original on 26 April 2005. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  5. ^ Sri Lanka
  6. ^ Denis Judd, Empire: The British Imperial Experience, from 1765 to the Present, 2001, p.171.
  7. ^ "No. 27150". The London Gazette. 2 January 1900. p. 2.
  8. ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36779. London. 28 May 1902. p. 12.
  9. ^ "The Colonial Premiers in Edinburgh". The Times. No. 36831. London. 28 July 1902. p. 4.
  10. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Ridgeway, p. 221).
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